Starting From the Beginning
by Sydney3
Summary: This is a continuation of Lessons Still To Teach. The Schuesters look back on the early days of their relationship and provide guidance for a confused Finn & Rachel. Lots of past, present & future wemma drabbles. Stay tuned for lots of updates!
1. Chapter 1

Sleeping in the next morning was wonderful. Three months of not having to turn on an alarm clock was one of the blessed perks of being a teacher. Will stretched his legs and felt that Doodlebug had found her way back to the foot of their bed. Emma must have gotten up in the middle of the night to let her back in. He turned to look over at his sunshine cuddled close and still sound asleep. He turned to face her and propped himself up on his elbow. Smiling he stroked her cheek then slipped his hand under the sheets to stroke her bare back.

"Rise and shine sleepyhead," he said kissing her forehead.

"Mmmm, Will," she said stirring, "what time is it?"

"Brace yourself," he teased knowing the old Emma would surely freak out sleeping in so late, "it's 10:30."

"Wow," she said kissing him and snuggling closer. "I guess we should enjoy this while we can. This is our last summer alone."

"We're not alone," he said letting his hand fall to their baby bump.

"You know what I mean," she said.

"I know," he said, "I don't think I'll mind getting up early next summer."

"Me neither," she said, "I'm actually looking forward to it."

"So what do you want to do today," he said, "it's a little late for breakfast but maybe we could grab an early lunch somewhere and then head to the grocery store."

"If you had a plan then why did you ask me what I wanted to do today," she said following her husband's example and running her hand up and down his bare back.

"Because sunshine, you always have a choice and a say so," he said.

"Are you trying to score brownie points with me," she joked. She knew all too well that he was serious and always took her opinion into account.

"Nope, just trying to be a good husband to my pregnant wife," he said nuzzling her neck. "And score a few points that I might be able to use to convince you that we need to know if the sea monkey is a boy or a girl."

"So there is a motive," she teased.

"Maybe," he said, his voice muffled because he was too busy kissing her neck.

"You really want to know," she said pushing him back and searching his eyes for an answer she already knew.

"I really want to know," he said turning over to seek out his pajama pants that at some point had landed in a heap on the floor. He tugged his pants on and threw back the covers, "but it's your call. If you want to be a surprise, then it will be one of the best ones I ever get in my life."

"I hate it when you do that," she said sitting up, clutching the sheets to her chest as she began the hunt for her pajamas. The tone in her voice was playful. She wants to know as much as he does but is enjoying his efforts to convince her.

"What," he asked untangling her pajamas from the heap, "here ya go babe."

"Thanks," she said, "when you say absolutely wonderful things to me in an attempt to persuade me to do something."

"This time I mean it," he said patting Doodlebugs head. Their dog sometimes slept more soundly then they did, "I'll be happy with whatever decision you make. I've pleaded my case but…I'm going to say one more word and leave it up to you."

"What's that," she asked watching him walk to the bedroom door.

"Shopping," he said with a wink, "come on Bug. Let's go outside."

With a huge grin on her face, Emma watched their dog follow Will out of the room.

"Little one," she said patting her baby bump and made her way to the bathroom, "your daddy is something else."

Emma was in and out of the shower by the time Will came back upstairs. She figured he probably dawdled downstairs, getting the paper, turning on the coffee pot and playing with their dog. Truth be told she would have much preferred sharing the shower with her husband but knew they had all summer for that and then some.

As she got dressed, she heard his footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Em," Will said walking back into their bedroom.

"In here," she called from the bathroom.

"Hey," Will said walking to the door and leaning against the frame. He found his wife in one of his button down shirts and a flowery skirt that fell just past her knees. She was towel drying her hair. "You look cute."

"Do you mind," she said motioning to the shirt. He shook his head, "we're going to have to go shopping for me before we go shopping for the baby. I'm starting to grow out of my clothes."

"You can wear my clothes anytime, it's sexy," he said, "look, um, we've got a problem."

"What's wrong," she asked.

"I found something on our front porch when I went out to get the paper," he said leaning up against the vanity, "Actually two somethings."

"You don't mean," Emma questioned.

"I don't think they ever left last night," Will said, "They were just sitting on the swing."

"Wow," Emma said, "what are we going to do?"

"I'm not taking them to the store with us so cross that option off the list," he said.

"Why don't you run to the grocery," Emma said, "I can stay and talk to them."

"No way," he said. Unless it was something very specific, Emma never let him go to the grocery store without her. He always came back with a bunch of junk and half of the things on the list forgotten, "I always get in trouble when I go without you."

"Well then, I guess we can survive until tomorrow," Emma said, "We've got more than just a box of baking soda and a shriveled up lime in the fridge."

Smiling at the memory, Will took her in his arms and kissed her.

"I'm sorry baby," he said, "this isn't how I anticipated kicking off the summer."

"It's okay. It's just day one. Every teacher has one or two students that they just can't let go of," Emma said, "Finn and Rachel are ours."

"Thank you," Will said.

"Get dressed," she said patting him on the backside as she walked back into the bedroom. "I'll go check on them."

"They're in the kitchen," Will said turning on the shower. Emma started towards the door but turned just as her husband rid himself of his pajama pants. She smiled and bit her lip. She loved seeing him like that. He caught her eye and threw the pants at her. "What?"

"Nothing. I just have an extremely handsome husband," she said walking out of the room.

As Emma made her way downstairs, she could hear Doodlebug barking in the backyard and voices in another room. She stopped by the side door to let the dog in before continuing on to the kitchen.

"Come on in Doodlebug," Emma said to the happy dog, "are you hungry?"

She walked through to the kitchen to find Finn and Rachel sitting in the breakfast nook. They looked exhausted, physically and emotionally. Emma remembered how tired she was after that first night.

"Good morning," she said to the kids.

"Emma," Finn said standing up with an apologetic look written all over his face, "I'm really…"

"No worries," she said, "I completely understand. Will and I did the same thing that first night, although it was behind a closed door, not on someone's front porch."

"It just seemed the most logical place," Finn said as Emma grabbed two mugs from the cabinet. Rachel noticed she pulled out the "his" and "hers" mugs. She watched her former guidance counselor fix a cup of coffee for her husband and tea for herself. When Emma popped an English muffin in the toaster, she was curious if they would share it. Rachel wondered to herself if she and Finn would ever fall into a morning pattern like the one she had been witnessing of the Schuesters. She hoped so.

"Okay," Will said walking into the room clapping his hands, "let's start the day."

"Um, honey," Emma said handing him his coffee and accepting an "official" good morning kiss, "Hi. Look, they've got a million questions."

"They said that," he whispered.

"They didn't have to. Look at them," Emma said grabbing the muffin from the toaster, "they're one step away from being locked in Sue's bathroom having panic attack."

"Okay," he said kissing her on the head, "come on you guys. If we're going to take a trip down memory lane, we're going to be comfortable."

"What are we doing," Rachel asked as Finn took her hand. He knew his friends well enough that he didn't have to communicate through words. Class was about to start.

"We're starting at the beginning," Emma said. "The day Will came back from New York."


	2. Chapter 2

Walking past the choir room to her office that day was excruciatingly painful. Emma felt her heart break all over again seeing the kids hanging out in there before school, minus their leader. That room was full of people but to Emma, it was empty. Will didn't come back with the kids. He was taking a chance on Broadway, because she told him to go. Yes she told him to go with words but on the inside she was screaming for him to stay.

Emma walked towards her office with tears in her eyes. She wanted more than anything to go in that room and congratulate the kids but she couldn't. She couldn't walk in that room and not burst into to tears when she didn't see Will. She wanted to but she just couldn't. Emma made the conscious decision to let the kids come to her.

"Miss Pillsbury," Finn said running out of the room.

"Finn," she said with a small smile, "welcome back."

"Thanks," Finn said, "I know why you didn't stop and see us. It's cool. We understand. Before you head in to your office, um, Mr. Schue wanted me to tell you something. He wants you to know that loves you and he'll see you soon."

Emma looked at him and could feel the tears fill her eyes. The sob built up in her throat and she found herself at a loss for words.

"Oh man," Finn said panicking, "I told him I didn't want to tell you that. We didn't talk about what would happen if you cried."

"It's okay," she whispered trying to force a smile, "thank you. I'll stop by and see you guys later, I just…I just can't right now."

"It's okay. I understand," Finn said gently squeezing her arm, "We're going to be in the auditorium right after school. I guess it's our last official meeting of the year."

Nodding, she turned to walk towards her office. She didn't see the glee kids pop out of the choir room one by one and a huge smile form on Finn's face. They let her walk to the end of the hall before tiptoeing after her.

Emma walked towards her office brushing away a tear that was sliding down her cheek. She couldn't wait until she was sitting at her desk with the door closed. It wouldn't be the first time she had shed tears over Will in that office. In fact it wouldn't be the first time that week she had cried behind the wall of glass. It was just a few days ago that she found herself sitting at her desk, tears falling, having just sent him on his way to New York.

She knew she should have asked him to stay but how could she after all she put him through this past year. Emma didn't have a pamphlet for this. She had tried to write one but couldn't. How could she possibly help someone else when she couldn't even fix this situation for herself or for Will? She thought giving him her blessing to follow his dream to Broadway was the right thing to do but it wasn't what she wanted. She wanted him to be just down the hall, thinking of her while he graded tests, just like she thought of him while working on transcripts. She just wanted him.

Blinded by her own tears, Emma didn't even see the figure sitting just in front of her door. Head bowed with his hands resting on top of his knees, he looked up just as she looked down to reach for the key to unlock her office. "Emma," a voice whispered.

Emma drew a sharp breath, frozen in place. No, she thought to herself, no. That couldn't possibly be his voice. "Emma." The voice said again. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on getting the door open. Fiddling with the keys, she felt a hand gently take her wrist. "Emma, look at me." She felt her belongings slip from her hands and fall to the floor. The electricity that his touch sent through her body told her exactly who was sitting on the floor beside the door to her office. Instead of looking at him, she looked to the ceiling in an attempt to control the sobs that were welling in up in her throat.

"I couldn't do it," he said with his own tears threatening to fall. She could hear it in his voice. She felt him wrap his arms around her waist and rest his forehead against her stomach, "I couldn't do it."

They stood there, Will still on his knees, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, both completely oblivious that they were in a crowded hallway with students walking past. Emma struggled to contain her emotions and could feel herself on the verge of falling apart.

"Will," Emma whispered so softly she wasn't even sure he had heard her say his name.

"It meant nothing," he said holding her tightly, "it meant nothing without you there to share it with me."

"Will," she said again slowly bringing her hand to his cheek. Feeling him nestle his cheek in her palm sent her sobs into overdrive. Her heart raced and her breathing was holding steady with the beat.

"Hey," Will said gently looking up at her the minute he felt her breathing quicken.

"Will, I'm so sorry," she said struggling to breathe between the words, "I'm so sorry."

"Shhh," he said standing up and taking her head in his hands, "It's okay."

"No, it's not," she cried, "I'm so sorry, for everything. I shouldn't have told you to go."

"Calm down," he said resting his forehead against hers. He could tell that her anxiety was only growing as she struggled to contain her emotions. He knew that he had to get her out of this hallway and somewhere quiet. He had to move quickly, he could hear Figgins yelling at Puckerman just around the corner which meant that the Glee Club had followed Emma to her office and were loitering. He was just reaching down to pick up her belongings when the principal rounded the corner.

"William," Figgins said, "You are to be commended, 12th place at nationals...not bad for your first time out." The principal quickly caught on that two of the most respected members of his staff weren't paying a bit of attention to him. His guidance counselor was crying hysterically in the hallway and his Spanish teacher was desperate to calm her down.

Figgins wasn't a bit blind to the feelings these two faculty members had for each other. He knew in his heart it would only be a matter of time before he was changing her name plate yet again to reflect her new married name. Figgins knew that Will was coming back with the kids. He had called in to tell the principal that a substitute wouldn't be necessary. He also told him not to tell Emma. No one, however, was prepared for Emma's reaction to finding him sitting on the floor in front of her office.

"Principal Figgins," Will said scooping up Emma into his arms, "I really appreciate your kind words but I've got something far more important that I need to deal with right now. If you'll excuse us, we've got to get out of this hallway."

Figgins nodded and patted Will on the back. He gently rubbed Emma's back as she clung to Will. He looked over and smiled to the Glee kids before turning the corner. Many heads turned as Will carried Emma down the hallway to the one place that he knew they would have a bit of privacy, the faculty restroom near Sue's office. He knew it would be empty. No one ever went there because she scared everyone into to believing it was for her use only.

Will kicked the door open with his foot and carried Emma into probably the cleanest room in the whole school, next to her office. He gently set her down and turned to lock the door. He never let go of her hand. He turned back to find her struggling to catch her breath through the sobs. He knew at that moment, their future would be a great one, even if the woman he loved was having an anxiety attack before his eyes.

"Emma," he said brushing a lock of hair off of her face, "breathe. I'm here. It's okay. We're going to fix this."

"This is really happening," she struggled to say, "Please tell me that I'm not dreaming."

"Sweetie," he said trying out a pet name for the very first time. He wasn't in the least surprised at how easily it rolled off his tongue. He knew it was meant for her. "You're not dreaming. I'm really here."

"I'm so sorry," she stuttered, "I never should have told you to go."

"I came back for us," he said, "I'm not leaving you ever again."

"Will," she started to say but he put his finger to her lips.

"Shhh," he said taking her into his arms to calm her down even more, "calm down and catch your breath. You don't have to say anything right now."

Emma felt herself wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest. His touch always had an instant calming effect on her and he never failed to be there when she needed him the most. She pressed herself into him, allowing herself to relax in his arms.

"I imagine we'll have a lot more tears as we talk this all out," he said rubbing her back, "hopefully no more hysterics though, okay?"

"What are we going to do," she asked not moving from his embrace.

"Well, here are my thoughts and I gotta warn ya, I'm not taking no for an answer," he said looking down at her. When she nodded, he continued. "I think that as soon as school is over today, we need to shut the outside world out and focus on us. First we're going back to your place so you can pick up some stuff for a least a week."

"A week," she questioned.

"At least," he continued not bothering to elaborate, "After that, we'll run to the video store and rent a ton of movies. And I have got to go to the grocery store. My fridge is empty except for a box of baking soda and a shrunken lime. When we get back to my place, we're locking the doors, closing the curtains and turning off the phones. We're going to be completely unavailable to anyone except each other."

"When did you have time to think all of this through," she said looking up at him, a smile slowly forming.

"There's that smile I love so much," Will said running his fingers through her hair, "I started planning the second that I realized I was chasing the wrong dream. You're my dream Emma and I am committed to fixing this, I don't care how long it takes."

"So what you're saying is that we should focus on us, all summer," she whispered.

"I was thinking longer than that," he said.

"A lot longer," she answered.

"We have to get through the school day first," Will said, "are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know. I really want to let you out of my sight," Emma answered shaking her head, "I'm still afraid that I'm going to wake up and you're still going to be in New York."

"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere, I promise," he said, "but maybe I can give you a small preview of tonight's performance."

"Will, I'm not…we can't…now's not…," she stuttered.

"I'm not talking about that. That will happen when it happens, when we're ready. I'm talking about this," he said taking her face in his hands and gently pressing his lips against hers. Their lips moved slowly at first and then the love they have for each other took over and the kiss grew deeper. They stood there with their lips dancing together until they were breathless.

"Wow," Emma breathed burying her head in his neck.

"I've wanted to do that for a year, I've kinda been saving up for it," he whispered into her hair. Tears started to pool in his eyes. "I was so afraid I'd never get a chance to do it again."

"You can do it any time you want to," she said stroking his cheek.

"I plan on it," he whispered brushing his lips gently against hers.

"Will, I need to tell you something," she said pulling away as he leaned in to kiss her again.

"Now's not the time to…," he started to say.

"No. I really need to say this. Please let me," she said waiting for him to give her the okay.

"Okay," he mouthed.

"I love you," she said so softly he barely heard her.

"What did you say?" He heard her but wanted to hear her say it again. A smile slowly formed on his face knowing that she was going to say those three magic words to him again. He had been the one to say it first and knew that in her heart, the answer was the same. She was angry then, angry at what she thought was the truth. Tonight, the truth would reveal itself.

"I love you," she whispered again.

"I thought that's what you said." He cupped her cheek gently, stroking it with his thumb. He remained silent because he knew she wasn't finished.

"This time last year, you told me you loved me," she said, "I wanted to say it back so badly but I didn't. I should have said it back but I didn't. So I'm saying it now. I love you, Will. I love you so much."

"I love you too," he said, "We'll be all right, I promise. We're going to talk this out and get us back on the yellow brick road to the Emerald City."

"Okay," she whispered.

"Okay," he said kissing her gently.

"All right."

"Okay then," he said kissing her again. In that kiss they both felt the beginning of forever forming. Home was in each other's arms and they would have stayed that way if it weren't for Sue banging on the door.

"I know you're in there Schuester," Sue said.

"Crap," Will said sighing and resting his forehead on Emma's shoulder. "I guess that's our cue to get back to class."

"I guess so," Emma said tightening her arms around his waist, "but I don't want to."

"Hey, I have an idea," Will said untangling her arms, "why don't you spend the day in my classroom? You can use my computer and pretend to work on whatever. I hate to say it babe, but I don't think you're going to do real well in your office by yourself all day."

"Are you sure," she asked, "I don't want to distract you."

"You'd be distracting me more if you were in your office," he said, "I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about you. Having you there with me would do me some good too. I need you near me. Besides, I've got a few of the glee kids in my first class. They'll keep the other kids in line if they start whispering."

"I take it Noah's in this class then," she said turning to look at herself in the mirror. She was a mess. "Oh my god."

"Here," Will said rifling through her purse to find a small packet of Kleenex, "let me."

"Schuester," Sue said banging on the door again, "you and Esmeralda have thirty seconds to vacate this bathroom. If you don't, I'll make the Glee Club clean it."

"I'm not going to miss her this summer," Wills said gently wiping away the smeared make up under Emma's eyes.

"We won't be available for her or anyone to bother us for a while," she reiterated.

"Come on," he said gathering up her stuff and taking her hand, "the sooner we get this day started, the sooner we can go home."

"Home."

Such a simple word but at that moment, it meant so much to Will and Emma.


	3. Chapter 3

"So that's why Sue was such a spitfire that day, I mean more so than usual," Finn said.

"Yeah," Will said sitting down on the couch next to his wife. "At least she didn't make you guys clean that bathroom, not that we did anything to it but she surely would have trashed it before you guys got there. Luckily, Figgins heard that part and stepped in."

"We were unbelievably unprofessional," Emma said. She scooted closer to her husband and pulled her feet up on the couch. "Finn, you were there. I was working out of his classroom. I had to sit on my hands so I wouldn't reach out and touch him because I really wanted to."

"I wasn't really doing my job as a teacher either, thank god it was the last day of school," Will said, "I couldn't have cared less if you guys were in the room or not. "

"And Figgins said nothing about you not being in your office," Rachel asked Emma.

"He wasn't happy about the arrangement but he saw me in the midst of my breakdown and let it slide," Emma answered, "he actually checked in on us a couple of times before the day was out because of my little "moment" in the hallway."

"That was the last time you had a panic attack," Will said draping his arm over her legs.

"No it wasn't," Emma said, "I've had two more since then and came very close to having a third. My parents were the root of two of those attacks. The third almost happened when you mentioned something about getting married at a campground."

"I don't consider those panic attacks though, honey. When you struggle to breathe and lose all sense of where you are, that's a panic attack," he said looking deep in her eyes, "those other times flared up your OCD but we managed it. That day in the hallway was crazy, you've haven't had a moment like that since then."

"I thought you said that you cried a lot that night when you guys were talking," Rachel said trying to pull them out of their little world of reminiscing. She watched Emma lean over and kiss Will's cheek. Rachel knew she was doing that out of love for her former teacher and to reassure him that she understood and was in agreement with his explanation.

"Oh we did," Emma answered, "but there were no hysterics, just honesty. I told Finn this but I'm going to tell you too Rachel, sleeping next to Will that first night was the best night's sleep I had ever gotten in my life and we slept on the living room floor."

"We kind of camped out," Will said, "it wasn't exactly neutral territory but it was fun. We needed to be that close."

"We were so tired," Emma said stroking his arm, "tired of running away and lying to ourselves and each other. Tired of fighting."

"Fighting what," Rachel asked quietly.

"Everything," Will said with a sigh. Taking a trip down memory lane was emotional, even now.

"We fought for two years. We had a few rather loud arguments both privately and publically," Emma said lacing her fingers through his. She immediately picked up on his heightened emotions, "it wasn't just the verbal fighting though. We fought our feelings for each other. I tried to fight my feelings for Will by dating Carl."

"I tried to fight Carl by becoming him because I thought that was what she wanted," Will said, "I was fighting with myself trying to get over her. It was exhausting."

"We were in love. We loved each other so much and yet had so many obstacles to battle through, our biggest one being ourselves," Emma said.

"My going to New York was the smack in the face that we both needed to realize how stupid we were being and all of the mistakes that we made," Will said, "the threat of losing each other sent us both over the edge. I wouldn't change going to New York for the world though. It made me realize that I wasn't ready to give up the battle. I would always fight for Emma and our love."

"It was time. It was our time," Emma said, "it had to happen that way. We had to almost lose each other to find each other again."

"We've got no regrets," Will continued, "I mean obviously. Look where we are now, married for two years, a baby on the way _and_ we have a dog."

"It wasn't a bed of roses though," Emma said, "that night we had to strip ourselves down…"

"Emma," Will said laughing at her choice of words. Then he looked at the kids, "she didn't mean it like you think. We didn't strip ourselves down."

"We just put it all out there," she said trying again. Rachel and Finn hid their smiles. They knew what she meant but were both enjoying their little banter.

"Emma, oh my god," Will said covering her mouth with his hand, "guys, that first night we sat on the floor and just said everything we needed to say. The good, the bad, and the ugly. We both shed a lot of tears and there was even a tiny bit of yelling."

"After we said all we needed to say, we realized that we were back to square one and we could start over with a completely clean slate," Emma said, "except for the fact that we had already fallen in love."

"Just like that," Rachel asked.

"Pretty much," Will said, "we talked about everything else too. When we wanted to get married, when we wanted to buy a house, when we wanted to have a baby…the dog, we didn't talk about a dog."

"Will," Emma whispered moving his hand to their baby bump, "the baby's kicking."

"Really," Will asked excitedly as if they were the only two in the room. Finn and Rachel watched the married couple share in a tender moment. They shared a smile, wondering if they would ever find themselves in this position.

"The baby started kicking last night," Emma explained.

"What…what's it like," Rachel asked.

"I'm not sure I can describe it just yet," Emma said, "this is only the second time we've really felt it."

"I can," Will said excitedly, "it's incredible. After all that we went through, we've got a little life growing right here that we created together."

"You guys said you went shopping and rented a bunch of movies," Finn said pulling them out of their little world once again, "did you actually do any cooking and watch those movies, cause it sure doesn't sound like it. Sounds like all you did was talk."

"Actually we did. We mastered multi-tasking very early on," Emma said as Will rested his cheek on the baby bump, "Our first trip to the grocery together was a learning experience. Will has a major weakness and can't be left alone in the bakery or cookie aisle but that's beside the point."

"Were you scared," Rachel asked. It was evident that she was terrified of having this conversation with Finn after two years of being apart.

"Terrified," Will and Emma said together.

"The drive to my apartment was agony. We went there first to drop off my car and so I could pick up whatever I needed," Emma said, "I was trying to prepare myself for things that I knew were really going to hurt to have to listen to. The wonderful thing about Will is that he is very in tune with what I'm feeling, whether we're together or apart but I was still scared out of my mind. He held me for I don't know how long before we even left my apartment for the store."

"She just stood there shaking," Will said, "At first I wasn't sure just what to do and then I remembered what happens when I hold her."

"It always works," Emma shrugged.

"Bottom line guys," Will said, "our life together began that night."


	4. Chapter 4

******_**Author's note…okay guys, first of all thank you so much for all of the positive feedback on this story! Please be forewarned, I've got lots planned for it and it will be quite long by the time it's all said and done. My goal is to keep everyone satisfied with Wemma while we sit through this insane hiatus . Please note that it will go back and forth from present to past and then eventually past will catch up with present and the future will be approached. Feel free to leave suggestions, because they do fuel this writers mind! Again thank you so much for reading! I hope that you are enjoying reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it!****_

When the final bell rang that day and the kids filed out of the room, Will and Emma remained planted in their seats. They knew that there was no way they could just lunge at each other in an open classroom with students shuffling past and Glee kids occasionally popping in to say their summer goodbyes. They sat and stared at each other for at least fifteen minutes when the number of kids passing by the door had trickled down.

"I really want to kiss you," Will said, "I'm so close to launching myself out of this chair."

"I know," she giggled in response, "I can tell. In case you haven't noticed, I've been sitting on my hands to keep myself from touching you."

"Do you think it's safe to now," Will asked leaning back in his chair to look out in the hallway, "looks like the kids have cleared out."

"As much as I want to say yes," she said, "I think we need to get out of here first and go home."

Home. There's that word again. Silently they both realized that a simple word meant so much. Home is where the other is and home would no longer be an empty, lonely place. Will filled the void in Emma's life and she filled the one in his. They were meant to be together even though a twister came through and destroyed things for a bit. They're going to rebuild the Yellow Brick Road, slowly but together.

"Let's go then," he said standing up grabbing his messenger bag off the floor.

"Don't you have to submit your final grades," Emma said.

"You haven't been paying attention in class, have you Miss Pillsbury," Will teased, "I gave all of my classes their finals before we went off to nationals. I submitted my final grades of the semester before we left. I'm done for the year."

"Oh," she said softly. Just the thought of him having left for anything put her stomach in knots.

"Emma," he said instantly picking up on the sadness in her voice, "Figgins asked me to do that when we won regionals. He didn't want to bog down a substitute with all that end of the year crap. That's what I was doing the day you came over to help me pack."

Emma winced at those words and he could see the tears forming in her eyes again.

"Do you want to help me unpack," he asked finally walking over to her and wiping away a fallen tear.

"Can it wait until after we've had a chance to talk," she asked with a sniffle.

"You bet it can," he said, "it's about us right now, we're far more important."

"Okay," she said quietly.

"Are you ready to get out of here then," he asked, "what more do you need to do?"

"Um," she said, "I never actually stepped foot in my office today so I think we can just go. I really don't want to stay here much longer. If I need something, I can always come back and get it."

"Not for at least a week, you can't," he said gathering up her stuff and taking her hand.

Together they walked silently through the halls of McKinley High. The closing of the doors behind them not only meant the end of another school year but an end to all of the obstacles that kept them apart. The walk to their respective cars was filled with promise. Will knew in his heart that it wouldn't be too long before they were driving to work together. Emma's anxiety on the other hand was starting to build again when she thought of their impending discussions. She could only imagine some of the things he had to say to her, especially where Carl was involved. She had a few choice things to say to him too and she was terrified. Underneath his confidence, so was Will.

When they reached Emma's car, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Hey," he said brushing her hair back behind her ear, "it's going to be fine. I promise. I'll be right behind you. It won't be too terribly much longer and you'll be in my arms…for a long time."

"Promise," she said, "no matter what is said?"

"I promise," he said looking around the parking lot for anyone staring at them and then he kissed her gently, "no matter what. Let's get going. You lead the way."

"Okay," she whispered reaching up to kiss him again. Will took her keys and opened her car door for her. She climbed in and he handed over her purse and lunch bag. "I'll be right behind you," he said again. She nodded and took a deep breath. He watched her start her car before running over to his and climbing in quickly. Will backed his car out first and allowed her plenty of room to pull out in front of him and lead the way towards her apartment. "This is it Will," he said to himself, "after two years of wanting and waiting, tonight will begin the rest of your life with Emma by your side." He smiled the entire drive to what he hoped would only be her home for just a short while longer.

What Will didn't know is that the love of his life in the car in front of him was trying to hold back the tears. Her life had been made seeing him sitting in front of her office. "He came back," she said to herself, "he came back for us. We're in love, we always have been." That thought sent chills down her spine. Along with the excitement of finally being together came the nerves of the impending conversations that they both knew they had to have. "Emma," she said, "you're going to hear him out. Let him say what he has to say. He'll listen to you too. Then it will all be done and you can start over."

She watched him from her rearview mirror as often as she could. Not once did she see that gorgeous smile of his leave his face. His smile was contagious and she smiled through the tears as they pulled into her apartment complex. Emma lived a bit closer to the school then Will so despite the reality of it being a short car trip, it felt like an eternity. Turning off the ignition, she watched Will pull in just beside her in his clunker of a car. He opted for a sports car once, because he was trying to be the man he thought she wanted. He took it back when he realized that trying to compete with Carl and be something that he wasn't was exhausting and not at all what she wanted.

Will looked over at her and smiled before getting out of the car. She gathered her purse, lunch bag and keys; took a deep breath and opened the door. Will was right there waiting with his hand reaching for hers. She smiled and took his hand. She led the way to her apartment. At the time, neither of them knew that it would be one of the last times they made the walk from the parking lot to her front door.

"Come on in," she said when they reached her door and she had unlocked it. Her apartment was everything he imagined it to be, having never stepped foot in it. Clean would be an understatement but she didn't go so far as to put the plastic coverings on the furniture. There were books everywhere. Will knew Emma liked to read and he imagined the last couple of months that was probably how she spent the majority of her time.

"I've never been in your apartment before," Will said quietly.

"It isn't much and I'm not quite sure I can really call it home," she said setting her purse and keys on the side table, "this is the third place I've lived in this year."

She stood in the middle of the living room wringing her hands and watching him take in his surroundings. She looked to the ceiling and took a deep breath. Blinking away the tears that started to pool in her eyes, she silently begged him to say something.

"Come here," he said suddenly and pulled him to her. He wasted no time in planting one of the surprise sneak attack kisses on her. And there they stood, their lips dancing once again. Sue wasn't there banging on the door. There were no students hell-bent on interrupting them. It was just two people coming to terms with the immense love that they have for each other.

"You're trembling," he said when they finally pulled apart to catch their breath.

"I'm scared," she whispered burying herself in his arms.

"Of what," he said, "of all that we have to say to each other?"

"Yes and," she said taking a breath, "once everything is out in the open, you'll realize that you made a mistake by coming back and leave me again."

"My mistake was not bringing you to nationals with me," he said, "well that's my most recent mistake. I made a bunch of them and we'll talk about them all, once we've had a chance to get a little more comfortable. Emma, we screwed up. We've got to talk it out and it's only going to make us stronger."

"Will," she said not moving from his arms.

"Go pack a bag," Will said kissing her forehead, "the sooner we can run these errands the sooner we can get this talk over with and move forward."

"Will," Emma tried to say again.

"If you don't go pack a bag," he teased, "I'll go do it for you and that means I'll have to go through your stuff."

"Will," she said a third time.

"Emma, listen to me," he said taking her face in his hands and looking her deep into her eyes, "I am _not_ going to leave you. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. You're stuck with me, for better or for worse. Now go get your stuff."

He gently pushed her in the direction of her what he hoped was her bedroom. He wanted so very much to follow her in there but knew she probably needed the time alone to collect herself. Will took a deep breath and let his eyes wander around the apartment again. They fell onto a book lying on the coffee table. It was a McKinley yearbook. He noticed that it wasn't the one from this year or last year for that matter. It was from Emma's first year as the guidance counselor. Smiling he flipped through the pages looking back on the kids and their freshmen photos. They had come so far since those pictures were taken.

Will flipped through the yearbook until he got to the page with his "Teacher of the Year" photo on it. Lying on top was one of Emma's famous pamphlets. She must have saved that one for some reason he thought. Picking it up, he saw the heart she had drawn around his picture. He had no idea when she must have drawn it but as worn as the spine on the book was, he knew she must have stared at it quite often. It was then that he chose to flip over the pamphlet in his hand, "So You're In Love With a Married Man". "Oh Em," he whispered.

Taking the pamphlet he ran to her room. Will found her taking something from an open dresser drawer and putting it in the suitcase on her bed. When she turned to get something else, she spotted him in the doorway, tears pooling in his eyes. One of the things Emma loved the most about Will is that he was an extremely emotional person. He loved with his whole heart and wore it on his sleeve. She knew the moment she met him that was one of his finest qualities.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she said.

"No," he said walking over to her and taking the garment out of her hand, placing it in her suitcase, "I really love you."

"I really love you too," she said.

"Emma, I'm not married anymore," he said holding up the pamphlet. "It's okay to love me now."

"I never stopped," she asked taking his face in her hands.


	5. Chapter 5

_****Author's Note…a bit unsure about this chapter but my beta Sarah really enjoyed it so up it goes. Not too worry…the big talk is coming and so much more! Stay tuned throughout the summer for pretty regular updates. I'll do my best to tide us "wemminites" over until season 4 begins!****_

It only took one more long drawn out kiss before they realized it was time to get moving. The conversation they had to have wasn't going to have itself and delaying it was only causing Emma's anxiety level to rise. So instead of sitting back and watching her pack, Will helped under her guidance. "Bring comfy things," he told her, "we don't need to dress to impress here, babe. We're already pretty acquainted with that side of ourselves."

Emma knew he was right. It was time to peel that layer back and reveal a new side of themselves to one another. They didn't know it at the time but this would come to be their favorite side of each other. It would eventually bring them a level of comfort and intimacy that they thought only existed in fairy tales. It would allow their love to grow and constantly reach new heights.

"Ready," Will asked as she closed her well organized suitcase.

"I think so," she said taking one more look around her room making sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

"Don't worry," Will said grabbing her suitcase, "if you think of anything, we'll just pick it up while we're at the grocery."

"Okay," she said as they made their way to the front door of the apartment. Emma turned the lock to her apartment and wondered to herself just how many more times she'd walk through this door and call this place home. She slipped her hand back in to his, not because she needed to but because she could.

"Movie store, here we come," Will teased as they walked back through the parking lot. He stopped just before they reached his car. "Emma, this is going to sound really silly but would you be at all opposed to leaving my clunker here and taking your car?"

"Not at all," she said handing him the keys, "you're still driving though."

"I really need to look into getting a new one this summer," he said kicking one of the tires on the way to the driver's side of Emma's car.

"I like your car," she said. For a fleeting moment, she flashed back to Will driving a yellow sports car three feet in the parking lot of McKinley. It didn't suit him at all and he had only gotten it to get her attention.

"No you don't," he said, "besides it's not safe. I'm not driving my family around in an unsafe car."

Will didn't catch what he said until after the words left his mouth. Then it dawned on him what he had said and the fact that Emma is and deep down always has been his family. Emma smiled slightly and bit her bottom lip. She could feel her cheeks blush and hoped he didn't notice. But he did and in that moment fell in love with her all over again.

Slipping in to the passenger seat of her own car should have felt awkward and with anyone else in the driver's seat it probably would have but this is Will. Everything always seems to be okay when he is involved except for when it wasn't and that's mostly her fault and doing. "I'm going to get it right this time," she thought to herself. By his side is where she belongs.

Will pulled her out of her thoughts when he took her hand and brought it to his lips. "Any idea of what you want to watch," he asked interrupting the brief silence. He knew he had to keep her talking or she would be lost to her thoughts and anxiety.

"You," she whispered.

"You can watch me for free," he joked, "any time."

"That's good to know."

"Seriously," he said, "what should we rent?"

"We're really going to watch movies," she asked.

"Maybe not tonight but I figure at some point this week we'd curl up and watch some. I don't want to have to run out to the store when we're ready to," he said, "I'm afraid my collection hasn't grown all that much and I know how you feel about Armageddon."

"I have no desire to see that movie for a long, long time," she said, "maybe we could give it to one of the glee kids or something."

"I guess we could," he said. He didn't really want to though, that was the first movie they watched together, "I hate that there's a console in between us."

"Why?"

"Because I want you as close to me as possible," he said.

"Then let's hurry," she said.

Will stepped on the accelerator more so as a joke than to actually get there faster. They weren't too terribly far from the video store and traffic was starting to pick up a bit as people were out and about gearing up for the weekend. When they arrived at the video store Will turned and looked at her with concern in his eyes.

"Em," he said, "Sam works here. I don't want this to be…"

"Will, it's okay. Something tells me the cat's already out of the bag," she said. Emma knew the whole school was watching when she had a breakdown in the middle of the hallway and that Will was the one that swept her off her feet, literally. The glee kids love Will and no one would be more supportive of their relationship than those kids, "they might as well get used to the fact you and I are an 'us' now."

"Yes we are."

Will got out of the car and walked around to open the door for Emma. Emma immediately slipped her hand into his, the need to be constantly touching him hasn't gone away yet. Through the store window he could see Sam watching with a big grin on his face. Will tried to wave him off but he figured what's the use. Walking into the store, they were stunned to not only find Sam but Mercedes, Kurt and Blaine too.

"Hi guys," Will said casually.

"Hot date Mr. Schue," Kurt teased.

"Yes she is," he answered causing Emma to blush yet again, "but it's not a date, it's a relationship. Big difference."

Smiling and hanging off of each other casually, they set out to find movies they could both agree on. Surprisingly enough, they settled on several fairly quickly including "Dances With Wolves" which unbeknownst to either of them would become "their movie". The kids watched from afar with smiles on their faces. Seeing their favorite teachers' eyes light up with they spoke quietly to one another meant somewhat of a peaceful summer for them. They wouldn't have to worry so much about them like they did last year.

"They're watching us," Emma whispered at one point. She could feel four sets of eyes on her the entire time they were searching for movies.

"I know. Do you want me to say something," he asked looking over her head at the kids and making a face at them. The kids saw his look, smiled and went about their business but as soon his attention was back on Emma and the movies, they turned to watch them again.

"No it's okay," she answered, "might as well get used to it. It's not going to stop and I can only imagine what will happen when school starts back up."

"Come on," he said taking her hand and pulling her towards the front of the store, "let's get these checked out and get out of here. I'm so ready to lock ourselves up in my apartment and we've still got to go to the grocery."

Mercedes was the bold one of the bunch who pulled Emma to the side as they made their way to check out. She gently took Emma's arm and pulled her away from Will as he continued to the counter. Will didn't really pay attention to the fact that it was Mercedes that stopped his sunshine; he thought she stopped to look at another DVD. When he realized she wasn't following, he turned back only to have her wave him on.

"Mercedes," Emma said, encouraging her to speak.

"Ms. P, he loves you," Mercedes said simply, "He loves you so much that we almost lost him when you…well you know. Please take care of him. He means the world to us."

"He means the world to me too," Emma whispered. She wasn't quite sure if her response was enough to convince the student in front of her but it was all she could manage to say.

"We know," Mercedes said with a smile, "it's just, well, we're really protective of Mr. Schue."

"I know," Emma said.

"We love you too Ms. P. We want you guys to be happy. You both deserve it and each other," Mercedes said sincerely, "we want the next wedding we all sing at to be yours and Mr. Schue's."

Emma smiled at her and gave her a quick hug. She hoped that everything she wanted to say translated through it. She never knew the glee kids felt the same way about her as they did Will. The nod and smile Mercedes gave her in return let her know that she understood.

"Sam," Will said, "do you think you could add Miss Pillsbury's name to my account?"

"Sure thing Mr. Schue," Sam said completing the transaction, "you're all set."

"Great, thanks," Will said taking the bag of DVDs and turning to Emma, "ready?"

Emma squeezed Mercedes' hand quickly as a quick thank you before turning and taking Will's hand once again. "Ready."

"See ya," Will called to his glee club members as he held the door open for Emma. "You know, they're going to watch us until we're out of sight."

"I know," Emma said as they approached her car, "maybe we should…oh never mind."

"Maybe we should what," he asked as they got in the car.

"Maybe we should…," Emma said again and then leaned over the console took his face in her hands and kissed him deeply, "do that. School's not in session, there's no need to keep things professional."

"I love you," he said with a laugh.

"And I love you," she said looking back at the video store to find the kids high fiving each other and Mercedes giving her a thumbs up.

"What did Mercedes say to you," he asked threading his fingers through hers as they pulled out onto the road again.

"She asked me to take care of you," Emma said, "they've been worried."

"I guess I haven't been myself this year," he said quietly. It's the truth, he thought to himself. He's hardly recognized himself this past year. He's been ashamed of the actions he has made and even more of the ones he didn't.

"We'll fix it," she said turning the tables and comforting him as he had done to her for much of the day, "I promise."

"I know," he whispered bringing their joined hands to his lips. As best she could, Emma rested her head on his shoulder and there it stayed as they drove to the grocery store. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of shopping with him for the first time. "It's kind of exciting, huh?" He read her mind.

"What," she asked.

"The thought of shopping together."

"Yeah," she answered, "You can learn a lot about person just by going to the grocery with them."

"I thought school wasn't in session," he teased.

"Different kind of school," she said simply.

"Ahh," he said as he pulled the car into a parking spot at the market. "Well, let's get to class."

Will kissed her gently once he turned the car off, got out and walked around to the passenger side. Opening the door for her, he once again offered her his hand and once again there was no hesitation from her to take it.

"I'm going to follow your lead," he said as they walked to the entrance, "get whatever you want, whatever you think we need."

"Are you sure," she asked as he got the cart, "I mean I can…"

"Honey, get whatever you want," he said calling her a pet name again. He loves the way her face lights up when he calls her anything other than her name and he loves how easily the words slip off his tongue. He then motioned to the cart, "and don't worry about this. I've got it."

"Thank you. I love you," she whispered kissing his cheek as she placed her purse in the cart.

"I know," he said returning her kiss with one to her forehead, "So what's your shopping strategy?"

"Today," she said, "I'm going to walk on the wild side and get what looks good. We'll have plenty of opportunities to grocery shop the right way, won't we?"

"You bet," Will said as they made their way to the produce section. Will watched Emma walk right to the grapes and he smiled knowing that they were going to always be a must have in their refrigerator.

"Emma I have to tell you something."

"Oh my god," she said stopping in her tracks.

"No, no, no. It's not bad," he said reassuring her, "it's just I don't like the red ones."

"Don't scare me like that," she said playfully swatting him on the arm.

"Sorry," he said, "but I don't. I didn't want you to think you have to get them just for me."

"I don't like them either," she said, "I never have. Carl didn't like the green ones so he decided to mix them thinking that he could eventually eliminate the green ones all together."

"You mean," Will said. All this time he thought that Carl was helping her with her OCD but he was trying to help her, he was trying to change her. Will struggled to keep his mouth shut but knew he couldn't have this conversation with her here and now. It had to be behind a closed door without an audience.

"It had nothing to do with my OCD," she said sorting through the fruit, "it was something he was trying to change but Will, this isn't the time or place to have this conversation."

"I know," he said, "but it has to happen."

"I know, sweetie, believe me I know," she said touching his arm as she placed the grapes in the cart, "and we will. Just not here."

"It's just," he said walking over to the apples.

"Will," she said, "please don't do this now, please?"

Emma knew that the mere thought of Carl sent Will to a place that only she could bring him back from. The thought of discussing him frightened her a bit because she had no idea what Will was going to say. He had bottled everything up for so long and had no one to talk to about his feelings. He would always come to her when he needed to talk and for much of the year she wasn't there for him. She casually asked Shannon one day if he ever talked to her about 'things'. "The only things he has ever said to me are how much he loves you and the thought of you with Carl makes him want to throw his fist through a wall."

When he didn't immediately respond to her, she walked up behind him and put her arms around him. She felt Will immediately relax in her embrace, loving the effect her touch had on him. They were already well aware of the effect his touch had on her. It made her swell with even more love for him when she realized her touch had the same calming effect on him. She rested her cheek on his back as he placed several apples into a bag. He didn't bother to ask which ones she liked, he already knew. They may not have spent much time speaking this last year but he never stopped paying attention.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "It's just…"

"I know. When we get home, you can let it all out," Emma said. "You know, I think we might need to get a few bottles of wine while we're here too."

Will laughed and turned to put the fruit in the cart. He pulled her into his arms, not caring at all that they were standing in the middle of the produce department of a crowded grocery store. He was so focused on the woman in his arms that he didn't even see Burt and Carole Hummel make their way into the store. The Hummel's smiled at the sight in front of them. They silently agreed to stay one step behind the younger couple and not invade their privacy. "It's about time," Burt mumbled. Carole smacked him on the arm and took the cart from him, making their way into the store.

"Let's just get this shopping done so we can get home," he said once he released her from his embrace.

"Good idea."

They continued on their mission to fill the cart and get back to Will's as quickly as possible. Shopping together proved to be so much easier than either of them could ever imagine once they got past that little hiccup in the produce department. It was as if they had been doing this together for years, until they came to the cookie aisle that is. Emma watched Will's face light up like a kid in a candy store. She knew cookies were his weakness and that no trip would ever be complete without spending some time in this aisle. 'He's so indecisive,' she thought to herself after watching him walk up and down the aisle several times trying to decide what to get.

"Will, just pick something so we can go," she said, her patience starting to wear a little thin. She wanted to get back to the apartment, change in to something more comfortable and finally have that talk. Putting it off isn't helping things.

"This is an important decision," he said.

"Why don't we just make them," she suggested.

"You mean from scratch?"

"Yes. If memory serves you are an excellent cook. I like to bake," Emma said, "so let's just make them. It'll be fun; maybe we can turn it into a regular thing."

"A Will and Emma tradition," he mumbled, following her to the baking good aisle, "I like that."


	6. Chapter 6

"So you do this every Sunday," Rachel asked looking over at Finn. She could tell there were bits and pieces of the Schuester's story that he had heard many times before. Surely, she thought, as much time as he spends with them…he has to know about their Sunday routine.

"Yep," Will said looking over at his wife. He could see the smile in her eyes and the movement of her hand on her baby bump. Having felt the first kick just last night, he wondered how long they would stay in this state of euphoria. Watching his wife's face light up randomly made his heart swell. He couldn't wait to see their little sea monkey on the monitor at this week's ultrasound. He gently slid his hand under hers so he could feel too before saying, "without fail."

"Which is why we can't come over here tomorrow," Finn said quietly. At that moment, both Will and Emma realized that Finn had been trying to get Rachel away from their home. He wanted to sit down and talk her privately but it was obvious that Rachel was dragging her feet. Whether it was fear of the unknown or simply caught up in their former teachers' love story, Rachel wasn't ready to be alone with Finn just yet, "Sundays are their days."

"We learned very quickly that we needed something we could always do together that was light hearted and fun. We set aside Sundays just for that," Emma said. To the Schuester's, not only was baking cookies a family tradition that started their first weekend as a couple but more often than not it led to an "afternoon delight" in their bedroom once their relationship reached the point of physical intimacy. Emma was convinced that their little monkey was conceived on a Sunday afternoon.

"We both enjoy cooking…" Will said.

"Amongst other things," Emma mumbled.

"So that was a start," Will said nudging her playfully, "it gave us time to talk and learn new things about each other. We even took a cooking class that first summer, just to have something to do together outside of the house. But, you have to have something that's just for you too though. I still go to the children's ward at the hospital. Em comes with me every once in a while but that's my thing. She has her book club."

"You know, Mom and Burt told me they saw you guys at the store that day," Finn said chimed in.

"Really," Will said looking over at Emma who shook her head, "we didn't see them."

"I wonder why they didn't say hello or something," she asked. She leaned further into her husband when he put his arm around her shoulders. It surprised Rachel a bit because she thought if they were sitting any closer, Emma would be on Will's lap. She wondered if their closeness was because they had a baby on the way or if this is just something they always do and she missed seeing because she has been gone for two years.

"Burt wanted to," Finn said sitting back in the leather recliner Will just had to have, "but Mom wouldn't let him. She thought you guys needed your privacy and wanted to make sure you got it."

"We work at a high school," Will joked, "privacy doesn't really exist when the Glee Club coach starts dating the Guidance Counselor…not in this town anyway."

"It kind of turned out to be a blessing that it was the start of summer vacation, wasn't it," Emma said, "at least we didn't have a thousand eyes staring at us through the glass walls of our offices like they do now. That would have been too much for me to handle in the beginning."

"Yeah but you're used to it now," he said.

"I kind of have to be," she said, "I can't seem keep my husband from coming in and surprising me with sneak attack kisses…in between his classes…all day long."

"Hey, they're my lips to kiss," Will joked, "and I'm going to kiss them whenever and wherever I want to."

"Believe me," Emma said looking over at a confused Rachel, "he does."

Finn smirked because he knew very well they were speaking the truth. He knew Will would do that during their senior year, he knows they do it now. No one cares. They're a married couple. They're a married couple who happens to work together and are quite a team. There's not a single person at McKinley that has a problem with it. Even Sue has given up trying to 'reign' on their parade.

"Wow," Rachel said, "do I owe you an apology for all of the times I interrupted you two in the middle of a moment?"

"Yes," Will joked.

"Everything is a moment," Finn said solemnly, "when you're in love."

"Not everything," Will said with a laugh, "most things but not everything. Strolling down the sidewalk with your wife and your dog seems like it would be a moment but when your dog stops to puke up the dead something she found in the back yard and then your wife comes pretty close to adding to the mess…that's not a moment."

"Will," Emma said smacking his leg, "you promised you wouldn't tell anyone about that. Besides it's still up for debate if I was really reacting to her or if it was morning sickness."

"Can we get back on track here," Rachel said impatiently. It was Will's turn to smirk. It's very obvious that some things will never change, including Rachel's lack of patience.

"Geez Rachel," Finn said, "calm down. You just got back and already you're trying to take control again. You can't do that."

"They're teachers Finn," Rachel said, "they're supposed to be teaching us."

"Teaching us what exactly, Rachel," Finn said, "yeah there are some definite similarities here but they are completely different people than we are at a completely different stage in their lives."

"Look guys," Will said, "I don't mind you guys hanging out and even ask us questions about our history as a couple but the attitude has to stop. You're not helping yourselves acting like this."

"It seems to me like you two still have a lot of growing up to do and that's okay," Emma said as she delicately channeled the counselor side of her, "it's just another reason why you need to sit down by yourselves and talk this out. In order for things to work in the long run, if you really want them to, you've got to be somewhere on the same page. From what we can tell right now, you've got a long way to go."

"Relationships are about compromise," Will said draping his arm over Emma's legs, "and the ability to listen to one another. You can love and love big but when you lose the ability to listen, you lose the relationship. When Emma and I sat down that night, it was really important that we listened to each other and didn't get defensive."

"I can only imagine how difficult that was for you," Rachel said quietly.

"It was hard," Will said.

"The anticipation was terrifying. We had a year's worth of things to say to each other and we weren't quite sure where to start," Emma said, "I think that's your hold up too. You're afraid of what the other has to say but it needs to be said."

"We keep saying this but it's the truth," Will said, "we had so much to say to each other it was ridiculous. It was amazing how much we had bottled up inside. We had to just let it all out and start from scratch."

"I guess that's what I don't understand," Rachel said looking over at Finn, "how can you start from scratch when you've been through so much already?"

"If it's what you want," Emma said, "it's what you do, no matter how difficult it might be. Will and I wanted each other and we needed each other. Despite everything and everyone involved, that never changed."

"As hard as it was talking about it," Will said, "we learned that we both made a lot of incorrect assumptions, a couple of which had we bothered to talk about them at the time very well could have changed the course of things."

"We've kind of agreed though that it worked out to our advantage that we didn't," Emma said, "because it's made our relationship that much stronger in the long run."

"There were a few things that happened and were said that surprised me," Will said, "I completely broke down once we got back from the store. I didn't expect to do that and it shocked the hell out of me. I held on for as long as I could but I was completely overwhelmed. That shocked you too, didn't it Em?"

"Yeah. It did. I wasn't expecting that at all. I think another thing that shocked us," Emma said, "was how lonely we were for each other. There were so many things throughout the year that really sucked because we didn't experience or do them together. Some of them were so small but it's the small things that meant the most. Christmas was horrible."

"But you had Dr. Howell," Rachel said looking back and forth between Finn and the couple on the couch. Finn was preoccupied with the dog and that's when she knew for certain he had heard this all before. She looked back at Will who more or less remained expressionless at the mention of the name. A little part of her hoped she would learn just what Will thought of the man who unknowingly and unintentionally made much of that year miserable for him.

"So," Emma said, "Just because he was there didn't mean that something was missing for me. He tried to fill that hole in my heart and I tried to let him. It was a Will sized hole though…only Will can fill it and I feel so complete because he does."

"I tried to fill the hole in mine with Holly," Will said quietly, "and with the New Directions. Just goes to show you that an entire Glee club couldn't fill that void for me. You guys tried and I'm so grateful that you did but it just didn't work."

"What about when you were with Terri," Rachel asked.

"Rachel, do you remember when you asked me how I felt the first time I met Emma," Will asked.

"Yes. You said you'd never forget how you felt the first time you saw her."

"Right," he said, "The Emma sized void in my life existed before we even met. I just didn't know it. The moment I first saw her, I instantly felt complete. The more time we spent together, the more I realized that the woman I was in love with wasn't my wife. When Terri told me she was pregnant, a part of me was devastated because I found myself wanting to share that experience with Emma and only with Emma. I am so grateful that I am now."

"Me too," she said kissing him. Will then leaned down and kissed their baby bump. Emma smiled and her fingers through his hair. Knowing that the baby growing inside of her was created from their love overwhelmed her every day. She couldn't wait to see this baby, who she secretly wishes is a little girl too, curled up on Will's chest with him singing lullabies to him or her. The thought that they would be going through this experience again was just as exciting.

"Um…I know that…," Finn said finally speaking up and bringing the Schuester's back to the conversation…yet again, "there's a Rachel Berry sized hole in my heart but one big difference here is the fact that we're in a completely different place in our lives than Will and Emma. I've learned that they were ready to take that step. They are each other's Emerald City. Even with a ton of obstacles in their way, all roads led back to each other. They already knew who they are. We're still trying to figure that out."

"Guys," Emma said, "I'm going to be honest and say I don't think you'll be able to sit down and talk through all this in one night, like we did. Finn's right, the fact that Will and I were in a more established point in our lives put us in a different place and we were ready to charge ahead. With school and everything else you two have going on, it's going to take work and it won't be easy. If it's what you want though, you'll do whatever it takes."

"It's worth it," Will whispered, "it's so worth it."


	7. Chapter 7

_****Author's Note…This installment is a long one and I certainly hope it doesn't disappoint. Please remember that this fic will go back and forth from past to present and eventually to the future by the time I'm finished Thank you for reading…reviews are fuel to this writer's soul! Ps…you might need a tissue…**_

Walking into Will's apartment not even a week after they packed it up was a bit unsettling to Emma. She left heartbroken, not sure when she would ever see the man she loves so much again. She also left angry with herself for having not said anything and there was so much she wanted to say that day but didn't and couldn't. To be walking back through the door brought butterflies to her stomach and once again because of this undeniable connection that formed the moment they first shook hands, Will picked up on it.

"Don't worry," he said, "we're going to unpack all this stuff in a few days and it will look like I never left."

Emma gave him a sad smile. 'But you did and I told you to go,' she thought to herself. Not wanting to start crying, again, she continued through to the kitchen where she placed the grocery bags she was carrying on the counter. She wasn't prepared for the wave of emotions that washed over her when she walked through the door and had to pull herself together before she could face him.

"Just relax, babe," he said gently and kissed her on the head. Knowing full well Emma needed time to collect herself, he set down the bags he was carrying and turned to walk back outside, "I'm going to go get the rest of the stuff and your bag."

"Thank you," she whispered so softly she wasn't quite sure he had even heard her but when he responded, she knew that he did.

"It's okay Em," he said walking back to her. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around he before he continued, "I know you didn't expect to be back here so soon and I know now that we're here, everything is going to just spill out. You're overwhelmed. I am too. There's so much to say."

She nodded and blinked back a few tears. Emma took a deep breath and tried to let go of the butterflies as she exhaled. Having already broken down once today, she wasn't looking forward to doing it again but knew that it was probably going to happen when they finally did sit down to talk.

"Will you be okay if I run back out to the car really quick," he asked. He could feel her nod and kissed her on the head once again, "be right back."

Emma turned and watched him walk to the entry way. "He's just going to the car, Emma," she told herself. Boxes that she had labeled herself were everywhere. He must have raided his storage unit immediately when they got back from New York. Another sign he was here to stay.

Taking a deep breath, she got to work on putting up the groceries she brought in. The kitchen was clean and surprisingly cleaned to her standards and then she remembered that she cleaned it when they packed things up. She opened the fridge, the one thing that Will insisted he would take care of in fear of pushing her over the edge with her OCD. Sure enough, an open box of baking soda and a shriveled up lime were its only contents. She smiled because that's so Will. Emma was always amazed at how little things like this never bothered her as long as Will was attached to them. That had been one of the first signs those few years ago when they first met that Will would always mean and be so much more to her than just a friend.

"Okay," he said interrupting her thoughts by walking back into the kitchen, "this is the last of it. Sometimes I wonder why I live on the second floor, especially when it comes to lugging around heavy bags of groceries."

"That's why they have elevators," she joked as she continued to put things in their rightful places.

"I know," he said grabbing her bag, "I'm going to toss this in my room, is that okay?"

"Sure," she said nodding, "but please don't actually toss it. My glasses are in there."

"Since when do you wear glasses," he asked surprised by her revelation.

"Um," she said, "since I was nine but I rarely wear them, just at night mostly, for reading."

"Like me," he whispered.

"Like you."

"Okay then," he said holding up her bag and patting it gently, "I'll be careful."

He disappeared around the corner with her bag and was back in the kitchen just as quickly. Will leaned up again the doorframe and watched her as she moved around the kitchen. She definitely knew her way around his kitchen.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me," she said feeling his presence even with her back turned, "or are you going to help me out here?"

"I'll help," he said, "but first, I'm going to do this."

He walked over to her and gently took the grapes from her hand and set them back on the counter. He stroked her cheek and brushed his lips against hers, dipping her back slightly in the process. He felt her snake her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. When they finally pulled apart he whispered in her ear, "I've missed kissing you. We've only kissed a few times but it was enough for me know that these are the only lips I want to spend the rest of my life kiss. You've been so close but yet so far away for a year now," he said finally breaking down with her in his arms.

He had tried so hard to hold it together all day and he had succeeded but now it was time for him to fall apart just like she did earlier in the day at school. When he sank to the kitchen floor, she knew that dinner would be a lost cause. If they were lucky only the perishables would find their way into the fridge. There would be no more putting it off. The time had come. It was time to unleash the past.

"You've been my plus one for everything at school but this year I did everything by myself and it was miserable. When I got sick, I wanted it to be you that took care of me. I needed you there with me at glee club competitions. I wanted to take you to the junior prom. I wanted to share so many things with you. I wanted to call…I…"

"Will," she said shocked that the tables have turned and so quickly. She sat down on the floor next him and stroked his cheek, turning his face so that he would look her in the eyes, "take a deep breath."

It was now Emma's turn to calm down the man that she loves so much. Their ability to be there for each other like this, to balance things out so effortlessly amazes her just as much today as it has for the last several years. This last year though was a series of unfortunate events, most of which had been her doing and she knows that. With Carl in the picture, Emma was well aware of the attention she no longer paid Will but that didn't stop her from thinking or dreaming about him every day. She knew exactly how he felt when he began to avoid her once she announced her marriage. It hurt and sometimes it seemed as if they knew how to hurt each other just as much as they knew how to love each other. She knew he was jealous of the time she spent with Carl. She felt the same jealousy when she saw him with Holly.

Maybe a year ago they just weren't ready to explore this side of themselves. Maybe in the long run, things had to happen that way. Maybe they had to experience the hurt, the misery, the longing, and the jealousy in order to fully understand their feelings for one another. If anything, these feelings only made Emma love him more and now she was certain, they had the same effect on him.

"I know you have so much you want to say to me and believe me; I know how long you've bottled it up. I have too, remember? I'm sorry I wasn't there. I am so sorry for what I put us through but I can't go back in time and change it. I wish I could but I can't. I made a mistake, one that kept us apart and I know that. If you think I don't know that…well…you'd be wrong."

"I needed you," he whispered leaning up against the cabinets, "knowing that I couldn't call you. I've never felt more alone in my life. I couldn't just be your friend, I wanted to…I tried…just to have you close but I couldn't. I can't Emma, not when I want to be so much more. When you say this is my husband, I want that to be me. I've wanted that from the moment I met you and I know that was wrong but damn it, it's the truth."

"And you think seeing you with Terri didn't drive me crazy," Emma asked, "there were so many times I just wanted to just shake you into realizing how wrong for you she was. To sit back and watch her treat you like crap made my blood boil. When I found out that you two were trying to have a baby, my heart broke a little. That's when I realized that I was in love with you. I wanted that to be me."

"I didn't marry her to forget you though," he said quietly, "I just happened to be already married to her when I met you. When things started to happen with my marriage, I started to imagine what it would be like to be married to you. It hit me pretty quickly that the person I was so hopelessly in love with wasn't my wife."

"I think we jumped into things too fast back then," she said. "It was just too much, too soon. I completely understand now why you turned to Shelby and April. I was so worried about you rejecting me, that I rejected you and pushed you away. That was something I know now that I didn't know then. I'm so sorry I called you a slut. You're not."

"Mistake number two," Will whispered.

"What's that?"

"I said mistake number two," Will said clearing his throat, "I've wanted to tell you this for a year now but it probably wouldn't have changed things. I tried to tell you but you wouldn't give me the time of day. You were so angry but I kept trying. I wanted you to look at me the way you used to and I knew if you had only known the truth, you just might. I stopped trying when you told me you were seeing Carl."

"Will, what on earth is it," she asked.

"I never slept with April," Will said.

"Yes you did, Sue said that…," she started.

"Yeah, I know what Sue told you," Will said, "and you shut me out the minute she said something but it was a lie. Yes I kissed Shelby, that was partially her fault but I'm not going to even go there. That meant nothing and was instantly regretted by both of us. I know you've thought all this time that I had sex with April, but I didn't. Yes April spent the night at my apartment, she even slept in my bed but she's the only one that slept that night. I spent the night locked in the bathroom. I sat in the shower until the water ran cold. I dialed your number a hundred times. I wanted you there with me."

"You didn't…," Emma said stunned by his admission and then raising her voice angrily, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried," he said defensively also raising his voice, "many times but you wouldn't listen. You wouldn't even look at me. I didn't want to give up because I knew deep down, if you didn't love me, you wouldn't have gotten so angry."

"When you brought me the flowers," Emma started.

"Yeah," he said. "There were many other times."

"And you stopped when I told you about Carl," she asked trying to wrap her head around this.

"I gave up trying to tell you about that but I didn't give up on you…or on us," he said. "I backed off but never gave up. I tried to get your attention by doing some of the things that Carl was doing. You know…the car…Rocky Horror. I know that wasn't me but I was doing it for you because I thought that was what you wanted."

"Will I never wanted to be anything but who you are," Emma said reaching out to stroke his arm, "who you are is who I fell in love with. Who you are is who I am in love with."

"But it wasn't enough," he said sadly, "because if it was, Carl never would have been an issue. I didn't know what you wanted. I tried to get your attention any way I could. I was so excited when you said you come to sectionals with us. Even if it were only a few hours, it meant that I could just have you close and maybe you might remember how it felt to be so close to each other but you backed out because Carl told you he loved you. You have no idea how much I wanted to tell run after you and tell you that I told you I loved you first."

"It is enough," she said wiping away a tear that slipped down her cheek, "it's more than enough. It's everything."

"Then why," he asked, "why did you marry him? Why did you do the one thing that could have kept us apart forever?"

"I don't know," she said, "I don't why I did it. It happened so fast and I honestly felt like I was dreaming. For a split second I thought it was you standing next to me that day."

"I wish it had been," he said in a whisper so quiet he didn't think she could have heard him.

"Me too," she said resting her head on his shoulder, "you know Will, Carl isn't a bad guy. He really isn't it."

"I hardly recognized you when you were with him though," he said resting his cheek on the top of her head, "it seemed like he was trying to change you."

"Aside from the grape thing," she said, "he wasn't. He just wanted to show me how to live a little."

"Did you like that?"

"Sometimes. Most of the time no but there were a few times that I enjoyed being carefree," she said, "one time in particular."

"Rocky Horror," they said together.

"God, I acted like such a fool. A jealous fool,," Will said, "and I dragged the kids into it."

"No," she said with a sigh, "I was the fool. I never should have run from you that day. All of my feelings for you came rushing back and it scared me to death. The love we have for each other terrified me. I think that's part of the reason that I pursued Carl. I knew he would never fully have my heart and that allowed me to always keep him at arm's length even after we were married. I was a fool then too because by that point I was trapped. Carl kept trying to break down my walls and he tried so hard. Then I realized you already did that, without even trying. That's also when I realized that my attempts to keep myself from getting hurt, I was actually making things worse and I was hurting you."

Will remained silent but he reached for her hand, threading his fingers through hers. Unsure just what to say in response, he hoped the by taking her hand, the gesture would tell her what his lips couldn't. He was hurt and for so long he couldn't understand why she was doing this to them…he was starting to now.

"Things really began to change for me at Christmas," she continued when it was clear he wasn't going to. "When I invited you to the Christmas party and you said no."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I just couldn't."

"You don't have to be sorry," she said with a sniffle, "I probably shouldn't have even asked but you know how much I love Christmas. I wanted the person that I love to be there to share it with me and that's you…it wasn't the man I was married to. I didn't want you to be alone but I knew you were going to spend it by yourself because of me."

"I don't understand how it changed things for you," he said stretching out his legs and looking over to her.

"Because it meant that I was losing you and that's been my biggest fear in all of this…losing you," she said choking up, "When you told me that you wanted to keep things separate, it was like you were telling me you'd moved on. I know that wasn't the case. I knew it then and I know it now but I couldn't help feeling that way. I thought what I had done with Carl had permanently damaged things between us."

"Em, I needed time to figure out if I could still be your friend. Seeing you with a ring around your finger that wasn't mine sent me to a place…," he started to say then stopped, "I'm sorry, I'm not doing a very good job of explaining myself."

"You don't have to," she said, "I understand."

"I don't think you do," he said, "you have no idea how much it hurt _**me**_ to tell you that. It wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to be with you, in any way that you'd let me but I just couldn't forget that I had to go home at the end of the night when I wanted more than anything to stay. Carl didn't want me around and it's not that he was mean about it. He knew how I felt about you and asked me to back off. What was I supposed to do? Then you told me that I should start dating and I thought I had my answer. It seemed like I was starting to lose _**you.**_ I was clinging to some hope that you'd finally come to your senses but when you told me that, I thought you were letting me go."

"Yeah, that was stupid," she said agreeing with him, "I don't know what I was thinking because the thought of you spending time with another woman makes me sick."

"I tried but she saw right through me," he said.

"I know. Holly asked me if I was still in love with you," she said, "she asked me in front of Carl. I said I was confused but I should have just said yes because that was the truth."

"She told me," Will said standing up looking for a bottle of wine, "do you want some wine?"

"Please," she said not moving from her spot on the floor. She watched him move around the kitchen grabbing glasses and a corkscrew. Brushing away a few of the tears, she suddenly had the urge to kiss him. Not for reassurance but because "I can lean over and kiss you anytime I want to", she thought.

"And I want to," she said not realizing she had said the words out loud.

"What's that," he asked sitting back down next to her, handing her a glass of wine.

"Oh, I…um…was just thinking back to that day in my office when you told me you wanted to kiss me," she said.

"That was a good day," he said, "one of the last good days I had for about a year."

"That was a wonderful day," she said leaning over to kiss him, "I've missed kissing you too. Kissing someone has never meant so much to me as it does when I'm kissing you and being kissed by you."

"We've got all summer to practice," he whispered into her lips.

"No Will, we've got a lifetime to practice," she said. Their lips danced for a bit before she pulled apart and insisted they keep talking, "We're not finished yet, you know."

"I know."

"You came clean about the whole April thing. It's only fair that I should tell you something too," she said. He looked at her with questioning eyes that were just begging her to continue, "I was at regionals."

"What," he said, "really?"

"Yeah," she said, "I tried to stay hidden but Santana saw me beforehand. That's why she wasn't with the group…she sat with me. I left just after Rachel sang "Get it Right". It was like she was singing that song to me. Carl had asked for the annulment by that point, but I couldn't face you just yet. I was so ashamed of myself and my actions that I just couldn't. I was too much of a mess. I wanted to Will, it just wasn't the time or the place."

"You were still a mess when you told me," he said finally reaching out to touch her cheek. He wanted to do that from the second they sat down on the floor but hadn't been brave enough until this moment.

"My OCD went into overdrive. Everything came crashing down on me but there you were…picking up the pieces," Emma said, "You always know what to do to make me feel better. I stopped being afraid of our love that day."

"Can I ask you something now that I wanted to ask you the day you told me about Carl," he asked.

"I think I know what you're going to ask," she said.

"Was I the reason you never consummated the marriage," he asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I love you," she said, "I made the decision a long time ago that sharing myself for the first time with someone is a one-time gift that I have to give away. It's mine and mine alone and I'm not going to give it to just anyone. Call me old fashioned, call me whatever you want but I made that promise to myself and I have stuck to my guns about it. The man I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with gets to unwrap this present."

Will laughed out loud. He knew that she was trying to cut the tension a bit and he was grateful. He also knew that she wasn't finished and he was actually excited to hear the rest of her answer.

"That person is you, Will," she said her voice dripping with honesty, "when we tried this last year I told you that I've been waiting for the right person who wouldn't reject me and would accept me for me. You've done that from the second we met. The way I see it now, I married Carl but I didn't marry him with my heart. My heart is and always will be married to you and yours and I can't imagine sharing myself in that way with anyone but you."

"Does he know this," Will asked.

"He does now," she said, "I was just as honest with him. He deserved that much. He deserved to know why his wife always pulled away when he tried to kiss her. I didn't have to tell him much though, he already knew. He was just trying to hold on to the hope that I would forget about you and my feelings would change. But he knew and that's why things dissolved so quickly and relatively easy, he did that for _**you**_."

"Wow," he said.

"See, I told you he wasn't a bad guy," Emma said.

"I guess not," he said, "I have another question."

"Why did I give you my blessing to head to New York," she asked. She knew it was coming but was a bit glad that they had come full circle and hopefully the next topic of conversation would be about their expectations for the future.

"Yeah."

"I told you the other day in the hallway," she said, "you've given so much for so long to everyone, including me. You deserved to take that chance with nothing holding you back. I had to let you take it, no matter how badly I wanted you to stay. 99% of me hoped that what actually happened would happen and you'd come home to me. I just wasn't prepared emotionally to see you this morning and that's why I broke down. I had this plan that when I finally did see you again, whether it be just a few days later or a few months later, I would be this strong, confident person on the outside and at least have a tiny grasp on my emotions but I've never been so wrong. And I was wrong to tell you to go but at the time I really thought it was the right thing to do."

"I appreciate you supporting my dream," he said, "but again, it was like you were pushing me away. I said it then, I'll say it a thousand times more, I don't want to lose you. Emma, you are my Broadway…you are my dream. Nothing I do in life will be as fulfilling if you aren't by my side. You are far too important to me to give you up for five minutes in the spotlight."

"Will," she tried to say, tears pooling up in her eyes again.

"Don't you get it, I'm in your spotlight and that's all I want," he whispered brushing away her tears with him thumbs ever so gently, "that's all I need. I'm singing to you and only you."

"Only me?"

"Well, until we have a baby," he teased, "then you'll have to share."

"Oh Will," she said, "I've missed you so much. I'm sorry…I…"

"Okay, come here," he said scooping her up, albeit a bit awkwardly as they were still sitting on the kitchen floor, and pulling her onto his lap, "we've got to stop with the I'm sorry's. Like you said, what happened…happened. We can't go back in time and change it. We lost a year together, we know that and we know why. What we can do is learn from our mistakes and really focus on making things right. The good news is, we've got a whole summer ahead of us. No students to interrupt us. No SAT prep on Tuesday nights. No…"

"No Sue," she said.

"No Sue. Just you and me," he said rubbing his nose against hers, "I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I love you Emma."

"I love you so much," she whispered, "it may be awhile before I'm ready to…to…"

"Make love," he said and then continued when she nodded, "it's okay. I can wait. We don't need to be in any kind of a hurry. It will happen when it happens. We've got to get to know each other again as these new people."

"I've heard that somewhere before," she said burying her face in his neck.

"We're ready this time," he whispered, "we're ready for it all."

"So what do we do now," she asked.

"Let's start over," he said pulling away from her and looking into her beautiful eyes, "welcome to McKinley Ms. Pillsbury."

"Thank you," she said leaning towards him to press her lips to his, yet again.


	8. Chapter 8

"Wow" was the only word that escaped anyone's mouth once Will and Emma had finished retelling the tale of their talk that first night. It came from Finn and even though he had spent a lot of time with the Schuester's in the two years following graduation, he had never really heard the whole account. Will saw Rachel brush a tear from her cheek and knew that the emotions were running high…for everyone.

Will and Emma had made peace with that night. They were there, they lived it. Occasionally they spoke of that night but more for the silly little things that happened like the location of their discussion rather than the discussion itself. And up until now, they hadn't shared that the details of that night with anyone. Though they hadn't talked about it just yet, they both silently thought the first person to hear the tale would be their little monkey.

There were things they left out to Finn and Rachel. Some things just needed to be kept between the two of them. No one had to know that they spent hours on that kitchen floor even after their long awaited and very necessary discussion had ended. They shared things that happened throughout the year…things they had been dying to share with each other but couldn't. They kissed, cuddled, tickled and even played footsies with each other. Looking back it still amazes them at how effortless things became once they had cleared the air and were back to just being Will and Emma, two people madly in love with each other and looking forward to a future full of possibilities.

Unbeknownst to the kids, Will could sense and feel the change in Emma as they traveled down that little side path of their lane of memories. He knew that part of her heightened emotions was brought on by their baby but he also knows there's a part of her that is still so ashamed of the mistake she made that year. When he felt her shift a bit from his embrace, he knew it was just a matter of time before she excused herself and disappeared upstairs to the sanctuary of their bedroom.

It was too much, too soon and certainly not how he had planned to spend their first technical day of summer vacation. Will knew that Emma would agree with him in the fact that once they got started talking about the talk, they couldn't stop. That would have made things worse and probably kept the kids around even longer than they wanted.

"That was intense," Finn said breaking the silence.

"It will be for you too," Will said. He looked over to his wife who patted his leg gently. He then felt her slip out of his embrace and stand up, "and you can't walk away when it gets that way either. That solves nothing."

"Excuse me," she said with the tiniest of break in her voice, one that she was sure her husband would pick up on and prayed he get the hint that it was time to get Finn and Rachel out of the house. Watching Emma head towards the stairs and call Doodlebug to follow her told them loud and clear that she was done. Finn even looked over at Will and nodded. He knew it was time to hit the road, getting Rachel to follow might be the tricky part because she was clearly not ready to leave and wanted to hear more.

"Okay guys," Will said standing up, "Ya gotta get out of here."

"Come on Rachel," Finn said. He completely understood that they had worn out their welcome. This was not at all his intention. He had hoped to follow in his mentors footsteps and used last night as their time to talk things out but Rachel had other plans. His confusion allowed him to submit to her but at the same time he couldn't help but feel she was stalling.

"But I have so many questions," Rachel said not budging. Rachel wasn't ready to be completely alone with Finn and certainly wasn't ready to sit down and have a conversation like the one Will and Emma three years ago.

"We'll talk more about this later," Will said walking to the door, "just give us a couple of days."

"Thanks Will," Finn said with a nod. The silent communication between the former student and his mentor said more than enough. "Will Emma be okay?"

"Yeah," Will said looking upstairs, "just keep in mind she's pregnant. Her emotions are all over the place right now. We can talk about this but in small doses every once in a while…not all at once. It's too much for her. I'm going to do my damnedest to keep all unnecessary stress away from her this summer and help her to stay relaxed. That's my wife and baby upstairs. I love you guys but I love them more and they come first, always."

"You're so wonderful to her Will," Finn said taking Rachel's hand and dragging her out the door, "we'll see you later. I'll call first this time."

"Hey," Will said standing in the doorway, "talk it out and do it now. Don't wait or try to psyche yourselves out of it. You'll feel better, I promise."

"We will," Finn said pulling Rachel along the front walkway. He shot a nervous glance back at Will who gave him a simple thumbs-up sign.

"Oh my god," Will muttered as he closed the door. He looked over at the clock on the wall and sighed. They spent a good three or four hours reminiscing about their first "official" night as a couple. It was exhausting, then and now. Will knew if he felt that way, Emma must be having an even more difficult time. Inspiration suddenly struck and he walked over to the DVD case and pulled out their favorite movie before climbing the stairs to their bedroom. The grocery could wait until tomorrow and dinner could be delivered, Will was going to make every attempt to make his wife feel as relaxed as a pregnant lady can be. If that meant spending the rest of the afternoon cuddled in bed together, then so be it.

Making his way upstairs, Will glanced at the photos on the wall along the way. Emma made sure the most beautiful pictures from their wedding led the way to the second floor of their home. She kept back some of her favorites for their bedroom and one for each of their offices. He had to give her credit, she had amazing decorating skills and let her take the reins on that with no hesitation. She did, however, give him complete control on the "man cave" in the garage. It was most active during football season and stayed pretty dormant the rest of the year. "No way are you and the boys watching Monday night football in my nice, clean living room," she told him. All he could do was laugh and say, "Yes, honey."

Will walked past what would be the baby's room and smiled. He's so excited to get started on the painting and decorating and knew Emma was too even though she knew he was going to limit her involvement to only what is safe for her and the baby. Finn already offered to help with the big stuff and he was sure that Santana would help with the rest when she got home.

"Babe," he called as he entered their room. Doodlebug was sprawled out on their bed and looked up at him when walked in the room, "Hey Bug, where's your momma?"

"In here, Will," a soft voice called from the master bathroom.

"Hey," he said walking into to find her sitting on the edge of their whirlpool tub adjusting the temperature of the water. This tub was one of the reasons they bought this house. It was big enough for the two of them and more often than not they spent their Friday nights cuddled up in a bubble bath with candles and wine. It was a great way for them to wind down from a crazy week at school. Will walked up to her and let his hand fall to her head, running his fingers through her hair. "You okay?"

She looked up at him just as a tear trickled down her cheek. She didn't have to say a word for him to know that she was completely overwhelmed emotionally by all that was said downstairs.

"Honey, don't cry," Will said stooping in front of her and brushing away the tear with his thumb.

"I can't help it," she said tearfully. He took the bubble bath from her hands and poured it in the flowing water himself. "Halfway through it was just like a switch flipped and I just wanted to cry. I'm surprised I held on as long as I did."

"I think those happy hormones are kicking in," he said. He walked over to their vanity and grabbed a hair clip so she didn't have to move about. Walking back to her, he playfully opened and closed the clip a couple of times indicating he was going to attempt to pull her hair up for her. "I'm never very good at this but I'm going to give it a go."

"It's okay," she said managing a week laugh. She instantly closed her eyes as he began to rake his fingers through her hair. She loves when he does that, it almost instantly relaxes her and he knows it.

"Do you want some privacy," he whispered reaching over her to turn the faucet off, "I can go hang out with Bug while you relax."

"No," she whispered, "I want you to hold me…please."

"I'm pretty good at that you know," he said standing up and pulling his shirt off. He tossed it on the floor behind him and then looked at his wife. He wasn't sure if her heightened emotions would trigger her OCD or not, "I'll pick it up later, okay?"

"I honestly don't care," she said with a sigh starting on the buttons of shirt she's wearing, "just don't throw this one on the floor…it's one of your good white ones."

"Okay but I got this," he said slipping his hands under hers and undoing the buttons himself, "you don't have to do anything."

"Why are you so wonderful," she sighed as he moved closer to slip his shirt off of her shoulders. He answered her with a kiss to her neck. He then took the shirt and tossed it behind him. "Will, what are you doing?"

"Shhh," he said and then he kissed her. When he felt her arms slip around him, he knew he had distracted her enough to not worry about the clothes lying in a heap on the floor. Occasionally coming up for air, they remained kissing until the pile contained every last article of clothing. "Starting to relax a bit?"

"You're a miracle worker," she said watching him climb in the bathtub, never letting go of her hand.

"I don't know about that but I am a man who loves his wife," he said reaching for her and helping her climb in with him, "come here, momma."

"This isn't going to be so easy in a few months," she said easing down into his arms.

"Nope and I don't really want you to try then either," he said, "We'll come up with another way to take the tension off your back."

"That will be interesting," she said, "I already can't sleep on my stomach."

""I know…I'm sorry," he said feeling her take his hands and placing them on their baby bump. She then sank deeper into his embrace.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," she said, "it's called pregnancy."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, fingers entwined and Will placing gentle kisses on her back.

"The kids are gone," he said quietly, "obviously. Finn promised we wouldn't hear from them for a few days."

"I'm not worried about Finn," Emma said, "he'll be true to his word. It's Rachel that I think will come storming back here."

"We don't have to answer the door, you know," Will responded, "we can go on a mandatory lockdown like we did three years ago."

"You mean hit up the video and grocery stores and lock ourselves in the house until Friday's ultrasound," she asked twisting his wedding ring around his finger. She smiled at the memory of the day before their wedding when she took it to the jeweler to get engraved. She watched on as the jeweler expertly wrote "Emma's Sunshine" on the inside his ring. She didn't even tell him what she had done until their wedding night and they were tangled amongst the sheets. To say he was surprised would have been an understatement.

"Yep," he said, "we need dog food too so we'll have one more stop than last time."

"I can deal with that," she said, "but we have to get an early start. I refuse to miss out on our Sunday 'afternoon delight' because we wasted the whole day shopping."

"I'll let you set the alarm clock then," he said drawing lazy circles on her belly. Emma sighed and rested her head against his neck closing her eyes. "How's the monkey?"

"Your baby is just fine," she said with a sigh, "the mother of your baby, however, feels a bit robbed."

"Thought so," he said into her neck, "talk to me Schue. Don't keep it bottled up. That doesn't work for us, remember?"

"I guess I just assumed that the first person to hear our story would be this one," she said pointing to her belly.

"Our kids will still be the first to hear it, honey," Will said reassuring her.

"I don't see how."

"Because they'll be the first ones to hear it in its entirety," he said, "from start to finish, the good, the bad and the ugly and everything in between. We're picking and choosing what we tell Finn and Rachel. We don't have to tell them everything. It might sound weird but I think we had to tell them about that talk. If they are going to make things work between them and I for one really hope they do, they needed to hear it. Besides, we didn't tell them that we talked about a few more things curled up together on the living room floor in our little make shift love nest."

"True," she said, "they still don't know that you saw me at regionals and that you knew about the fight with Santana."

"And they don't need to," he said moving his hands to her shoulders and massaging them gently, "that's between you, me and Santana. We're calling the shots here Em. We can tell them whatever we want to."

"Okay," she said running her hands along his thighs. She loved the intimate moments like this where they could just feel each other. That was one of the big changes in their relationship after they made love for the first time. It's not that they were afraid to touch each other before that night but it was always a worry that they would take things too far before they were ready to. After that night, they really enjoyed feeling each other and finding the secrets spots that set their skin on fire when the other just grazed it with a finger. The love they have for each other only deepened that night and they became in sync with each other on another level.

"You know, we'll have to tell Rachel about Santana. She'll be home Saturday. Rachel has no clue all that Santana's been through since she graduated, unless Kurt has told her and I really don't think he has said too much," Emma continued.

"Yeah, this will be some homecoming for Santana…finding Rachel in town," Will said, "her room's all set by the way. And don't you dare think about helping her carry her stuff downstairs. Emma, I mean it. You're not lifting anything."

"Goodness, little one," she said to her belly, "your papa is quite the protective one. He won't even let get undressed by myself anymore."

"Hey, I'm just looking out for my valuables," he teased back. "And the undressing part…that's more for me."

"You can be such a pervert at times," she said, "You know that right?"

"I'm not a pervert. I have a beautiful wife! Since when did it become a crime to stare at her all the time…especially now that she's carrying our baby and is even sexier," he said. "It's kind of hard not to."

"Ok, flattery is scoring you a few more brownie points for your campaign to find out if the monkey is a boy or a girl," she said.

"Awesome," he said. Emma just laughed and shook her head. She loves how excited he is about their baby. His excitement just fuels her own and she is most looking forward to the first few moments they have alone with their baby. She's hoping they'll be able to kick the medical staff out quickly so they can savor that time.

"You know, I was thinking," he said moving his hand down to her lower back and gently massaging her tense muscles, "we could recreate that night tonight."

"You really want to camp out on the living room floor and watch movies," she asked with a sigh. The lower back massage felt wonderful. "I think you just found a way to ease the tension in my back."

"That was easy. I was thinking we'd camp out in our bed this time," he said, "it's a bit more comfy than the hardwood floor. We can order out from Breadstix. Oh and I'm turning our phones off. We're unavailable until Friday."

"Sounds like a plan…oh wait. We have to leave my phone on," she said turning in his arms, "the doctor's office will call at some point to confirm our appointment. I'm not going to miss that phone call and a chance to see our baby because we decided to turn to our phones off."

"We're screening calls then on your phone," he said, "I told the kids this and I'm going to tell you too. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that you have very little stress to deal with this summer."

"I really love being pregnant," she said, "You're spoiling me even more now than you usually do."

"I just want to make sure you feel as special and amazing as I know you are," he said kissing her on the nose and putting a hand back on her belly. Smiling, Emma leaned to kiss him gently and settled back down in his arms. No words needed to be said.

The Schuester's stayed cuddled in the bubble bath for a short while longer. When the goose bumps started to form on Emma's arms, Will wasted no time in pulling the plug and getting her out of the water, dried off and into his a pair of his pajamas and then took to getting himself into something more comfortable.

He ordered dinner while Emma picked up the heap of clothes on the floor, both proud that she left them lying there for that long. She joined him downstairs just as the doorbell rang signaling the arrival of their dinner. For a split second Emma was afraid that Rachel would be standing on the other side of the door but the smell of garlic told her otherwise.

Sighing a breath of relief, she walked into the living room and saw that Will had set up the coffee table as a make shift picnic table complete with the champagne flutes from their wedding filled with her favorite juice. "A picnic first and then it's upstairs for movie night."

Clinking glasses, they sat down to their little Italian picnic. Will and Emma made small talk and planned their week. Much of it involved their original plans for a week of just lounging around doing nothing. In the grand scheme of things they were only delayed by one day. Occasionally they were interrupted by a snoopy Doodlebug and once by a swift kick from the baby but for the most part they were lost in their little world.

When they were finished, they worked together to clean up so they could get to bed that much faster. Their favorite movie and their warm bed were waiting for them. Once curled up together with the movie playing and Doodlebug snoring softly at their feet, both of them thought back to the first time they watched "Dances With Wolves" together. That night was filled with the promise of the future amongst a couple of confessions, tonight was one of the many fulfillments of that promise.


	9. Chapter 9

To both Will and Emma, their long awaited talk lifted an enormous weight off of both of their shoulders. They could now just relax and move forward. They both knew that there would little things about the past that would pop up every now and then. They were pretty sure some of those little things would pop up in the next day or two or even that night. It didn't matter though. The hard part was now behind them and there were so many things that they could now look forward to.

"What do you say we get more comfortable," Will said pulling her up off of the kitchen floor, "personally I'm dying to get into some more comfy clothes. You go first. I'll finish up here."

"Okay," she said kissing him softly and walking into his bedroom. Will quickly scrambled to get the most important stuff put away. The rest could wait and he honestly thought that Emma was so distracted she wouldn't be bothered by what remained on the counter.

Satisfied with just the basics put away, Will then headed to his room while Emma changed and grabbed the blankets and pillows from his bed and built a little nest for them on the floor in front of the television. He would have preferred the comfort of his bed to the floor but that might be pushing things too far and this was a bit more adventurous and fun.

He grabbed a DVD and set the player up so that when they finally cuddled up together, he just had to press play. He turned around to find Emma in the pajamas he had worn the night before. The DVD case slipped from his hands as he stared at the sight in front of him. He had no idea just how sexy she would look wearing his pajamas but his breath was taken away by her beauty.

"Is this okay," she said looking down at the t-shirt and pajama pants. She spent half the time in the bathroom just catching her breath and calming down. She spent the other half of the time picturing what it would be like to share a bathroom with Will. Would they have his and hers sides of the vanity? Would their stuff just intermingle on it? Her biggest surprise in that moment was the realization that she didn't care one way or another if his toothbrush was right next to hers in the holder or if he shaved while she showered. This is Will and all of her walls were already down for him and had been from the get go. He had already seen her at her most vulnerable and was the only one who really knew how to make things better even when he didn't think he knew how to or could. When she saw his pajamas hanging up, the urge to put them on was so great and one that she didn't want to fight. "I saw them hanging up on the door and couldn't resist."

"It's more than okay," he said crossing the room and taking her in his arms, "you look beautiful. Are you comfortable? Something tells me this isn't what you usually sleep in."

"Yes, very," she said cuddling into his chest, "and it isn't but I just thought, you know, why not?"

"You can wear my pajamas any time you want to," he said kissing her forehead.

"I could definitely get used to it," she said with a blush.

"Be right back."

"Hurry," she said. Emma turned to take in the little love nest that Will had put together while she was changing, complete with a bottle of wine and a bowl of grapes. How he knew that this was her idea of a romantic evening…she'd never know. No sooner did she settle herself on the floor Will flew back into the room wearing nearly an identical pair of pajama pants and an old McKinley t-shirt.

"You said to hurry," he said when she looked at him with a look of surprise on her face, "and I brushed my teeth."

"Thank you," she said watching him sit next to her, "for hurrying, not the brushing your teeth part. I mean that was nice of you but not necessary. We've kissed quite a few times today and I couldn't have cared less. I just wanted you to kiss me."

"So part of your OCD has gotten a little better," he asked.

"A little. The medication seems to be helping but Will," she said reaching out to run her finger through his hair so happy that at last she finally could, "it's you. I don't worry about half the things I normally worry about when I'm with you. You've made a valiant effort to understand what I'm going through, even when we weren't really speaking. That's so much more than anyone has ever been willing to do for me, including my parents. You've never swept it under the rug or pretended that the problem isn't there. You were pushy when you knew you had to be and I was mad at you at first for the whole unwashed fruit thing but, you got me to go to therapy and confront things."

"Do you think I could come with you some time," he asked timidly. He wasn't sure how receptive she would be to the question but he thought it couldn't hurt to ask.

"To therapy?"

"Yeah."

"Um, can I think about it," she answered after thinking about it for a moment and still not coming up with a decent answer. It wasn't the idea of Will going with her that made her nervous; it was the fact that it was all so new.

"Of course," he said, "Emma, I'm not trying to pry. I just want to understand. Googling it is so generic. I want to know what to do and how to handle…how I can make it better…"

"Just be you," she whispered to him.

"But what if it's not enough," he asked.

"It's more than enough," she said.

"But," he tried to say.

"It's more than enough," she said again, this time accenting each word with a kiss. She then cuddled in his arms, "are we going to watch the movie or not?"

"Emma, please," he said, "please just think about it."

"Will," she said sitting back up, "this is all so new to me. It's not that I don't want you to come with me. It's more about not being ready for you to. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," he said.

"I promise, we'll talk about it again," she said, "just not right now, okay?"

"Okay," he said. She could tell that he was trying to understand why she needed to keep that part of her life separate for a little while but also that he was a bit disappointed. Emma knew that she would share her experiences in therapy with him but in her mind, their relationship was far more important right now than her issues with her OCD.

"Honey," she said smiling as the term of endearment slipped so effortlessly off her tongue, "I'm more concerned right now about fixing us. I can live with my OCD; I've been doing it for years. What I can't do is live without you and I think we'll find that the stronger we become as a couple, my problems won't be as big of a deal as they are when I'm really stressed."

Will looked at her longingly and leaned in to kiss her for the umpteenth time that evening. In that kiss, she could feel him making an attempt to understand and maybe just maybe a part of him was starting to agree with her. There would be plenty of time for him to tag along to one of her sessions with Dr. Shane but right now…the whole OCD thing was of minimal importance.

"Will," she whispered cuddling into his arms, "do you think you could turn on the movie now? I just want to cuddle for a little while, please?"

"Sure," he said reaching for the remote. Will knew that this conversation wasn't over and in time they would pick it back up. He sat back with her comfortably relaxing in his arms. He had been waiting for this moment for a year and there was a big part of him that honestly thought he would never get the chance to be alone in a room with her again and now here they were, officially and finally a couple, curled up doing what couples do…watching a movie.

Words were not spoken for quite some time but they both knew they were happy to just be together. They remained cuddled close for the first half of the movie. Both of their thoughts were drifting back and forth between the movie and the past but neither one dared interrupt things by saying anything. It was only when it was time to flip the DVD over for the continuation of the movie that the conversation picked up again.

"I love this movie," Emma said getting up to flip 'Dances With Wolves' over in the DVD player.

"Me too," Will answered, "I've never watching it with anyone before though."

"Me neither."

Emma returned to their little love nest on the floor and pulled the blanket up around the two of them. She absent mindedly pulled his arms around her as if they had been doing this for years and that's when it hit her that Will has always been the one. She has always done things with him without even thinking about it, it's just second nature. She has always hoped this is what true love is like and more importantly, she hoped but yet knew that he felt the same.

"Carl and I never watched many movies," she said cuddling closer to him, "he enjoyed going out and doing other things rather than this."

"Did you want to do this…I mean just lie here and have a movie night," he asked.

"Yes but not with him," she said. "It was another way I could keep him at arm's length. I really tried to keep things that would remind me of you out of my relationship with him because when I did, I'd spend the whole time thinking of you and that wasn't fair to you, me or him. I've missed this though…more than you know."

"That's debatable," he said kissing her gently. He stared at her for a minute. She could tell that he had something that he wanted to say but something was holding him back. She tried to convey through her eyes that it was okay to just say what he needed to and wasn't at all surprised when he took a deep breath and said, "look, Emma. I have to tell you something and I guess there's no real good time like the present."

"What is it," she said.

"It's not bad," he said, "just kind of important."

"What is it," she repeated sitting up.

"I know that Santana came to your office right after sectionals and told you off," he said. He was still lying amongst the pillows. "And I know that you came to regionals."

"What," she said completely shocked, more so that he knew about her conversation with Santana shortly after her announcing her marriage than the fact that she showed up to regionals. She wasn't as surprised to hear him say that.

"Santana called me that night to tell me she wouldn't be at Glee Club for a few days. She said that Figgins suspended her for speaking inappropriately to a faculty member," Will said sighing, "she didn't tell me who it was. She didn't have to and I didn't ask. I actually heard the whole thing."

"You…you heard the whole thing," Emma stuttered.

"Yeah. I was walking down the hall and heard her yelling. I wasn't sure at who or what about, you know her voice carries. I followed it to your office and heard everything," he said sadly, "I wish I hadn't though. It made me feel even worse. I mean I was stunned that Santana of all people would stick up for me like that but hearing you say you loved me for the first time and for you to tell a student instead of me…just hours after you told me you had gotten married. It sent me to a place that up until tonight, I didn't think was possible for me to come back from."

"Oh my god," she whispered. She did tell Santana that she was in love with Will. It was probably the most honest thing she had said to anyone up until that point and for a while thereafter. So much of the year was full of so many lies and cover ups. Emma wasn't quite sure who she was trying to fool, Will, Carl or herself. It was Santana that got her to admit it first. Not Holly, like everyone thought. It was Holly that got her to see that she was really fooling no one, no matter how hard she had tried. Santana stopped talking to Emma that day because of what she did to Will. _"That man loves you so much it drives us all crazy," she had said to Emma, "there's nothing…nothing he wouldn't do for you. We might lose him now because of you…because he lost you. He needs you and we need him. One of these days you're going to realize that you need him too." _It wasn't until she showed up at regionals that Santana spoke to her again.

"At least I got to hear you say it," he said looking away, not wanting to see the pain of that memory in his eyes.

"Will…I…"

"Emma, you don't have to explain and I really don't want to talk to about it right now but I thought you should know that I've known about that this whole time," he said clearing his throat, "At regionals as we were all taking our seats, I felt this wave of emotion come over me that had nothing to do with the competition or the kids. It's what I feel every time you walk into a room, whether I see you walk in it or not. It's what I felt the first time I saw you standing in front of your office wiping off your nameplate. Even in a room full of hundreds of people, I can tell you the exact second you walked in. When I saw Santana slip off, I knew for sure that you were there."

"Oh," she whispered. She wanted to cry but was out of tears at this point. A part of her was so glad that he was telling her all of this. She wondered if he had always known about the fight in her office with Santana. Santana's absence at school did not go unknown by a single student or faculty member. In fact…Santana herself started the rumor behind her suspension to protect both Emma and Will. Everyone believed it, including Sue. Santana became their secret ally, supporting both of them unbeknownst to the other.

"I was watching the kids from the sidelines. I looked for you and it was halfway through 'Get it Right' when I finally spotted you," he said reaching up to stroke her cheek, "I could tell that the song was really getting to you. I saw you run and I came after you. I just wasn't fast enough and I lost you in the parking lot. I called your name but…"

"I heard you," she whispered, "but I kept going."

"You did?"

"Yes but I…"

"Why," he asked sitting up.

"I just couldn't face you yet," she said, "and I didn't want to do or say anything else that would push you further away than I already had but I wanted to be there for _you_because I wasn't at sectionals and I should have been. It wasn't fair to do anything until everything was settled with Carl…it just wasn't…"

"Fair," he finished for her.

"Will, I messed up," she said, "this whole year was my fault and only I can take responsibility for my actions. I promise you that I'm going to do whatever it takes to get it right this time. I'm lost without you and it took me doing something really stupid to figure out what I already knew and have known for what seems like forever. I've only got one key to my heart to give away and you've had it from 'Welcome to McKinley'."

"I love you," he said. He leaned over to kiss her and when it was clear that they wouldn't be coming up for air for a bit, he pulled them back down to the pillows. He consciously knew that neither of them were ready to take things to the next level and he was completely content to just have her in his arms with his lips making love to hers. Emma responded with just as much passion. "I love you too."

Will's touch sent shivers down her spine and felt so right. She wanted him as close to her as possible and found herself wrapping one of her legs around his waist pulling him closer. She wasn't ready for more than that but was still amazed at how comfortable she was exploring intimacy with Will. It just confirmed, for both of them, how deep their love ran and if they can make it through this past year…they can make it through anything.


	10. Chapter 10

_****Author's note…sorry for the delay…it took me a bit to get this chapter right where I wanted it! I hope you're enjoying this bit of Wemma fluff. Please remember that this story will jump from present to past and eventually to the future. It's not going to be all about retelling the tale to Finn and Rachel. There's going to be lots of other things going on, for example appearances by many other members of the original New Directions. I'm trying to keep it fairly casual and I hope I'm keeping you interested and looking forward to updates! BUT I need you to tell me if I'm delivering a good story to you….so PLEASE REVIEW! **_

Unlike that night three years ago, the Schuester's were watching what had become "their movie" in the comfort of their bed instead of a little love nest on the hardwood floor. There would be plenty of time for campouts in the living room when their kids were older. Will remained adamant about keeping as much stress as possible away from his wife while she was carrying their child and a camp out on the floor would most definitely bring some unnecessary stress to her body. He could just hear her now complaining of her back hurting and not being able to get comfortable with the monkey bump as they had taken to calling it over the last couple of days.

Their thoughts, very much like that night, were drifting in and out of the storyline of the movie they've watched so many times now and yet it never gets old. Will continued to think about that first summer together and how their story might impact a very confused Finn and Rachel. There were some emotions stirred up already that he had tucked away and he was kind of waiting for the right time to voice them. Will didn't always like dragging up the past because it had been a difficult one but sometimes it revealed new things to each other that only made their love for one another stronger and grow deeper.

Emma's mind on the other hand was focused on the baby and their ever growing "to do" list. She was trying very hard to overcome the emotions that "the story of us" brought with it earlier in the day and that was proving to be very difficult with her raging pregnancy hormones. Despite the feeling of being robbed of the chance to tell their monkey the story first, Emma was quite proud when she thought back to all they had overcome to be together. One thing that she wanted to talk to her husband about though had nothing to with their journey to becoming "The Schuesters" and had everything to do with Santana. She just wasn't quite sure how to explain to Rachel why she had become their adopted daughter in many ways.

"God," he said halfway through the movie. Emma was cuddled up at his side lazily stroking their baby bump with one hand and the fingers of the other entwined with her husband's. She was only half listening to the movie. The fluttering little life growing inside her had suddenly captured her attention.

"What," she said not taking her eyes off of the television.

"I was just thinking," he said, "about the first time we watched this together."

"You fell asleep before it was even over," she mused. She loved that he fell asleep first that night. It gave her the chance to just sit and stare at him in the moonlight. She remembered how relaxed he looked sleeping next to her for the first time. Emma knew that he had been having trouble sleeping, even if he never actually said anything. For nearly a year, all she had to do was look into his eyes, they gave everything away.

"I know. I was just thinking that I slept better that night than I had in years."

"I know sweetie, me too. Well I did after I watched you for a while," she said with a yawn, "I think the chances of me falling asleep before this is over tonight are pretty good too. Our little monkey is already wearing me out in more ways than one."

"Do you remember how close I came to screwing things up again by asking if I could go to therapy with you," he said turning off the movie and the TV, "ugh, let's face it. We're not going to make to the end of this tonight."

"You didn't come close to screwing things up by asking that," she said shifting herself until she was lying flat on her back, her hand never moving from her belly, "it took me by surprise, yes but that wasn't something you could have said to screw things up."

"I was afraid that I was your trigger," he said rolling over on his stomach, propping himself up on his arms, "that's why I wanted to go."

"Sometimes you were," she said bringing her hand up to cup his cheek, "and sometimes you are now and not necessarily in the way that you might think. It's okay though. It never changes anything or the way I feel. Back then you got me so worked up because I loved you so much and there was nothing that I could do about it for the longest time. Until there was something I could do about it and that scared me to death. It scared me so much that I'm the one who messed things up and set us back a whole year, not you. Now that we're married, you trigger something else inside me and it's not the compulsion to clean but the compulsion to get a little dirty."

"I had no idea that you would turn out to be a little monster in bed," he teased.

"Yes you did and you love it. Don't you?"

"Oh yeah," he said kissing her with a loud, playful smack on the lips. She could tell that he had something more he wanted to say. She could almost see the wheels of thought turning in his head. "Em, do you think that…"

"I think that I love you and that you are the reason I finally got a handle on my OCD," she said, "no, I actually know that. I'm glad you were eventually able to come to a few sessions with me, if anything so Dr. Shane could see why I was working so hard to overcome things. When you asked that night, it just wasn't the right time. I said it then, I'll say it now…it was so new for me. It had only been a few weeks and I wasn't comfortable enough going by myself yet let alone enough to have my boyfriend come with me."

"I was more than your boyfriend though."

"You've always been more than my boyfriend. The good news is you've done such a fantastic job, you've been promoted to husband," she said tapping him on the nose, "pretty good promotion if you ask me."

"And now I'm going to be a daddy," he said shifting to lie on his side and draping his arm around her.

"Yes you are and I want to thank you for taking such good care of me," she said, "even though we're barely half way through this, you've been absolutely wonderful. You've always been wonderful even when I didn't deserve it and I am so lucky to be your wife."

"I'm the lucky one," he said scooting a bit closer to her.

"50/50 honey," she said knowing full well that he'd understand she was trying to tell him that she felt the same way and that they were lucky to have each other.

"You know, sometimes I can't believe that it all happened three years ago. I guess I should say five and include those two torturous years of hell," he said stroking her cheek, "it just feels like we've been together for so much longer."

"That's because we've always been a part of each other," she said, "even when we didn't know it. When a couple feels like they've been together forever that means they were made for each other."

"When did you become so philosophical," he teased.

"Well, I am a prolific pamphlet writer," she said yawning again, "must just be in my blood."

"Must be," he said cuddling her closer, "go to sleep babe, we've got some errands to run tomorrow and as a momma to be, you need your sleep."

"Might as well," she said shifting a bit in his arms, "while I can still find a comfortable position to sleep in."

"Is it already getting harder to get comfortable," he asked.

"Mmhmm," she mumbled, "a bit."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead and could already tell that she was drifting off.

"Will," she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Please tell me you didn't turn on the alarm clock."

"Nope."

"Good," she mumbled.

Will woke up first the next morning and spent nearly an hour just watching his wife sleep. She looked so relaxed and even in her sleep, glowed in the way only an expectant mother can. His heart immediately swelled with love when she cuddled closer to him, her hand never leaving its protective place on her belly. From the moment they found out about the baby, one or the other always has a protective hand on their baby bump. It's so precious to them because it almost wasn't.

Will, careful to not disturb his wife, gently pulled back the blankets revealing their baby bump. Ever since Emma's belly started to grow with their baby, Will found himself wanting to be as near it as possible. Emma was more than willing to comply, loving the feel of her husband's hands gently caressing her skin. He also enjoyed just resting his head on their baby bump while she was still sleeping. In a way, it was his alone time with their baby. He would whisper little stories about Emma to it and sometimes sing. What he didn't know was that his wife was well aware of his actions but pretended to remain asleep so he could have that time with their child and more often than not, the soothing sound of his voice lulled her back to sleep.

This morning though, it wasn't Will that woke Emma up but a swift kick from their little one. Still not used to feeling more than the fluttering, the few kicks that they've felt over the last few days have caught Emma by surprise. Her husband must have felt it too because she could feel his smile form against her stomach. Not bothering to even open her eyes, she brought her hand to the back of his neck and rested it there gently.

"Morning sunshine," she whispered.

"Did I wake you," he said.

"No, the baby did."

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that wake up call," he said turning his face towards her, "I just got a good kick in the face."

"Come here," she said reaching for him, "I think I know how to make it better."

"Is this going to be one of those mornings where I'm really glad we let Doodlebug campout with the kids next door," he asked.

"Well," she said devilishly, "we can play for a bit but we're saving the delight part for this afternoon. I really don't want to put off running our errands or we'll never get them done. We're going on lockdown, remember? They'll be plenty of time to do the 'nasty' while we're under house arrest."

"Define play," he said slipping his hands further up her shirt.

"Um…I'm willing to meet you half way on the attire," she said removing her shirt, "you're half naked. I might as well be too."

"That's only fair," he said kissing her belly and working his way up to her lips. Once at his destination, they both took a deep breath knowing they wouldn't be coming up for air any time soon. Finally when air became a necessity, Will gently settled himself on top of her but also keeping in mind that her body was changing, "Is this okay?"

"Actually," she said being a bit of the aggressor, flipped him over onto his back and straddled him, "I think we're going to have to employ the creativity."

"You just want to be in charge," he said sitting up and running his hands all over her bare back.

They loved skin to skin contact like this even if it never leads to anything more but that wasn't always the case…at least for Will. In the early days of their relationship, baby steps were taken in the realm of intimacy. Heavy make out sessions came first with Emma's bravery growing over time. Their hands and lips regularly discovered new patches of skin to caress and kiss. For the longest time this was as far as Emma would let things go. It frustrated Will in the worst way at times and she was always so apologetic for not being ready to take things all the way. Once the step had been taken and the "nasty" had been done, they were both surprised at just how much they enjoyed moments like this and often found them to be more intimate than the act itself.

"Yes, Mr. Schuester, I do," she said kissing him in between each word. He moved his lips to her neck and she reminded him again about the day ahead, "we've got a few things to do this morning and if you're in charge, they won't get done and I really want to get them done so we can just enjoy ourselves these next few days."

"How about this then," he said pulling her down and enclosing his arms around her. He lightly stroked her skin with his fingers, "why don't we just lay here for a bit? Just like this. That way we're not starting something that we can't finish right now."

"Let me get this straight," she teased, "you want to just sit here and scratch my back knowing full well that in a matter of minutes I'll be sound asleep on top of you rather than play and make out like a couple of crazy teenagers?"

"Well Cinderella," he said laughing, "what do want to do?"

"I want those cartoon mice and birds from the movie to do the shopping for us so we can stay here like this," she said snuggling into his chest, "but we have got to go to the grocery Will. We're coming dangerously close to having just a box of baking soda and a shriveled up lime in the fridge now that we've put it off for a couple of days. You know, if we were thinking more clearly, we would have gotten all of the errands done on Friday after school."

"You were in no condition to do that Friday," he said running his fingers through her hair, "you were exhausted and I needed to get you home. Ooh, hey I have an idea."

"What's that?"

"Let's get up and go run our errands," he said with a silly grin on his face.

"Will," she said reaching for her pillow and whacking him with it, "You are so lucky right now that I'm pregnant and this is the extent of what I can do to you because if I weren't carrying around your child in me, I would most definitely be adding a little rough to our little dirty."

"Come on Momma Schue," he said maneuvering himself to the edge of the bed with his wife still attached to him. Will stood up and Emma continued to cling to him, wrapping her legs around his body, begging with her eyes for him to carry her into the bathroom so they could start their morning. He kissed her and walked them through their room, "Um…I mean this in the most loving way possible but babe, this might be the last time I'm able to carry you around like this for a while."

They both looked down toward their growing baby bump and decided at that moment and as much as they're already in love with the little life inside, it was most definitely starting to get in the way. Emma bit her lip and looked up at him with a growing smile on her face.

"I told you we're going to have to start employing the creativity!"


	11. Chapter 11

_**Author's note: Another little bit of Wemma fluff but I promise to be jumping back into the early days of their relationship very, very soon! Thank you so much for all of the reviews. Please keep them coming!**_

After a bit of playing, Will and Emma finally managed to get themselves dressed, a task they really seemed to enjoy doing together. To say that they have a difficult time keeping their hands and eyes off of each other as they go through their morning rituals would be an understatement, especially now that there's a baby on the way. Will finds his pregnant wife more and more irresistible with each day that passes and Emma's hormones are raging in ways she can hardly keep up with. They both were silently thinking that this little detail would be one they would omit from the "story of us".

Before they left the house, Will checked with the neighbors to make sure their dog was okay and not causing too much trouble. Peaking over the fence he found the kids and his dog running through the sprinkler. "Don't worry Mr. Schue, she'll be dry before she comes home," the kids said. They knew all too well that there was no way Emma would let a wet dog back into the house.

Will laughed and headed to their SUV without a worry in his mind about their dog. He had the door open and waiting for his wife when she finally stepped outside. She smiled at the sound of the kids and their dog playing. "What's going on over there," she asked her husband as she settled into the passenger seat. Reaching over the console, she raised her hand to wipe a stray bit of shaving cream off of his cheek. She let her hand linger there for a moment before running it down his arm to find his hand.

"All I'm saying is there is a sprinkler involved," he said turning on the car and backing out of the driveway. He tried to keep a poker face when he saw how wide Emma's eyes had become at the thought of their dog soaking wet. He heard her whisper, "but she was just at the groomers."

Small talk was made as they drove to their first stop, the video store. Kisses were stolen at each stop light they came to. In comparison to their very first trip to the video store as a couple, they were able to raid the new release wall fairly quickly as they didn't have any students watching their every move. Knowing each other's taste in movies made the selection process go a lot quicker too and they were on their way to their main destination in no time.

Pulling into the parking lot of the grocery store, Will smiled and pulled into a spot fairly close to the entrance, a parking spot he had never pulled into before.

"What are you doing," Emma said, "you can't park here."

"Why not," he asked, "the sign says for expectant mothers. Isn't that what you are?"

"Oh my god," Emma said wrinkling her nose, "we can actually get away with this now, can't we?"

"I'd say so. Don't move. We're totally playing the part here," he said excitedly, "I'm going to get the door for you."

Emma, laughing the entire time, watched him run around the car with a big silly grin on his face. Sometimes the kid in him made her heart swell with so much love for him. The silliest things excited him and his smile was super contagious.

"So momma," Will said opening the car door for his wife, "do we have a duty list?"

His smile brightened even more at the sight of his glowing wife as he helped her out of the car. He loved the dressed down look Emma reserved for the weekends and today was no exception. She looked stunning wearing yet another one of his button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up slightly, black leggings and a pair of simple flats. Their baby bump filled out his shirt just enough to let passersby know that she was carrying their child. Will's just bursting with pride have her by his side and he loved showing off his growing family.

"Nope," she said taking hold of his arm and then sliding her hand down to take hold of his. She loved walking around on the arm of her "big kid" husband. He's so handsome and hers to share only with their children. Emma couldn't get over how cute he looked this morning wearing a pair of khaki cargo shorts, Titan t-shirt and a ball cap which he almost never wears unless they are in a hurry to get somewhere and they've been "playing" before they left. "We're stocking up so grab whatever."

"Really," he asked.

"Why are you always surprised when I say that," she laughed, leaning into him as they walked to the entrance of the store. They smiled and waved to one of their students along the way. They had long gotten over the fact that they couldn't hide their relationship from the students of McKinley. Going anywhere in a town like Lima, it was next to impossible to not run into a current or former student when they were out running errands or at a restaurant.

"Because we're always so organized when we come here," he said teased, "it's thrilling when we fly by the seat of our pants."

"If you say so," she answered shaking her head. She absent mindedly placed her free hand on her belly. It was her subtle way of saying that their blessed little distraction was being just that and keeping her from not thinking clearly.

"You okay," he asked.

"Oh yeah," she said as they approached the door, "it's just what I seem to do now. I can't help but keep a hand over our baby."

"I like that," Will mused.

"Sweetie, if you want to keep a protective hand on us," she said, "go for it. I'm not going to lodge any complaints. You know that."

"Yeah but we can't exactly walk around the store with my hand up your shirt," he said grabbing a cart.

"You don't always have to stick your hand up my shirt to feel the baby," she teased and handed him her purse to set in the cart.

"Yeah but I like sticking my hand up your shirt," he said grazing her belly gently with his hand.

"I know. You can when we get home," she said pushing him gently into the store with a pat to his backside, "and then some."

The happy couple shared a knowing look and another quick kiss before setting out to do their shopping. They both felt a pang of déjà vu walking through the produce section. This time, three years ago, they walked these same steps with so many emotions sitting on their shoulders. There was a nervous, worrisome tension that existed between them that day. They had a year's worth of crazy to talk about and neither one of them knew just where to begin. At the same time though, they were just so happy to be back in each other's company.

Today, the tension no longer existed and an undeniable comfort existed between them. Even to a stranger, they effortlessly presented themselves as a happily married couple, very much in love with other and now glowing because they have a baby on the way. Completely in tune with one another, shopping was actually easy and something they enjoyed doing together. The only arguments they had were about what kind of cookies to make on Sunday afternoons.

They knew that their walk down memory lane was just beginning and it seemed as if they were almost retracing the exact same steps they took that very first trip to the grocery. Will just couldn't resist saying something the second his wife headed to the grapes, the one thing they never left the grocery store without.

"Em," Will said as they walked through the produce section, "I don't like the red ones."

"I know," she said with a smile, "it's of like déjà vu, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said grabbing a bag and walking over to the apples, "if Burt and Carole show up...then it will be really weird."

"They just did," Emma said nodding to the entrance of the store to find their friends grabbing a cart.

"Damn," Will said, "at least we're in a better place emotionally than we were the first time they saw us here. Maybe they'll actually speak to us this time instead of watching us from afar."

"We're married now. Crazy in love. That hasn't changed, and we have a baby on the way. Babe, that's a pretty good indicator that we made it past that first night," she said standing behind him and wrapping her arms around him just like she did that day three years ago, "just try to keep it brief. I want to go home so we can do what we talked about as we were walking in."

"You mean sticking my hand…," he started to say before he was smacked on the stomach playfully by his wife.

"Shut up," she laughed, "not here."

"I like to see you squirm and blush," he said turning in her arms and kissing her. She tightened her arms around him rubbed her nose against his, not caring who was watching their little display of affection.

"Hey guys," Burt said pulling them out of their little world, "I'm pretty sure that's illegal in the produce section. Things might ripen before they're supposed to."

"Representative Hummel," Will laughed and extended a hand to his friend. He kept other arm wrapped around his wife, "happy to be back in Lima?"

"You bet," Burt said shaking his hand, "actually you have no idea. I love the job but the city is a bit too much for my taste. It's nice to come home and just chill."

"That's what summer vacation is for," Will said, "one of the perks of being a teacher."

"I hate to ask but I'm going to anyway," Burt said, "got any football tickets?"

"Don't know yet," Will said with a laugh, "Santana will be home on Saturday. If she brings any with her, they're all yours. I'm not going anywhere for a while."

"That's right! Kurt told me you guys had a bun in the oven," Burt said, "congratulations!"

"Thank you," Emma said, "we're really excited."

"I can tell," Burt said giving her arm a gentle squeeze.

"How are you feeling," Carole asked, "you look fabulous."

"Thanks," she said, "I'm good now that we're past the morning sickness. That was awful."

"No kidding," Carole said, "at least now you know what to expect for the next time."

"Oh," Will said excitedly, "the baby kicked for the first time Friday night."

"It's an amazing feeling, isn't it," Carole said and then turned to Emma, "If he wants to wait on you hand and foot for the next several months, let him."

"I intend to and he's already doing a great job of it too," Emma said rubbing her baby bump and cuddling closer to her husband, "it amazes me how suddenly everything has changed. You know you wake up one day and your clothes still fit and the next morning they all of the sudden don't and you're raiding your husband's side of the closet."

"You'll be shopping for yourself before you go shopping for the baby," Carole said.

"I was just telling Will that yesterday morning, although I do like wearing his clothes," she said gesturing to his shirt that she has on.

"I do too," Will said with a wink.

"Stocking up for the summer," Burt asked changing the subject.

"Yeah, we had plans to do all of this yesterday but it didn't quite work out that way," Will said, "we decided to go on a short lockdown and enjoy the first few days of summer."

"I'm really sorry about that," Carole said smacking Burt's hand as he reached for something not on his approved dietary list, "I had no idea what was going on until Finn came home yesterday. Even then it took him until just this morning to tell us that Rachel was back in town."

"It's okay," Emma said, "we're taking a trip down memory lane with them."

"Yesterday was a bit too much too soon though. Em's a bit sensitive right now," Will said rubbing his wife's back, "We had to kick them out."

"It's not Finn's fault, by any means. We could tell that he was very well aware of what part of the conversation was doing to my emotions. He tried more than once to leave but Rachel wouldn't budge," Emma interjected, "I take it he didn't say much this morning?"

"Nope," Burt said, "but Finn's really been thrown for a loop by all this. He's down at the shop this morning just piddling around. I just hope this doesn't pull him off track. He's got a really good thing going right now with school and wanting to be a teacher. Carole and I don't want him to lose sight of that."

"He knows," Will said, "he told me long before all of this that he really feels like he's found his place. And he's good at it. He's well respected at school by the staff and students. His ability to bridge the gap helps tremendously when he's there. He's studying hard at his own classes too. He's taken the imitative to get himself a bit ahead of the game by taking summer courses. He's always applied himself but he has a whole new focus and it's pretty cool to be able to watch him develop that way. There's no doubt in my mind that in a couple years, he'll be a full-time teacher at McKinley."

"You guys have always been great to him," Carole said, "I don't know that he would have made it through high school without you."

"We really appreciate you taking the time to talk him," Burt said.

"It's no trouble really," Emma said looking at her husband who nodded in agreement, "I think it's good for us to look back on things and talk about them. We learn new things each time we do."

"In a way it's kind of fun. We fall in love with each other all over again," Will said. "but it's been two years."

"A lot can happen in two years," Emma said picking up where he left off, "Will and I know that there are plenty of similarities between us and we're happy to provide any guidance if they need it. They sat back and watched things unravel between us so it's not that foreign of a topic for them."

"The big difference is time and distance," Will said adjusting his hat, "they've been apart for a long time. Friday was the first time they had seen each other. Em and I…well we were always visible to each other. We watched each other like hawks, even when we weren't together."

"Despite everything, Will and I always knew what was going on in each other's lives," Emma said, "Finn and Rachel haven't had that fortune. All lines of communication were severed when she got on that train."

"How is Rachel," Carole asked watching Burt put some fruit in their cart. He looked at her with a wide eyed grin and she laughed before continuing, "has she changed much?"

"I think so," Will said, "she's lost and confused. She's not that over confident star in training she used to be."

"There's still that little sparkle in her eye when she talks about being on stage," Emma said, "but if you didn't know she had it to begin with, you wouldn't see it now."

"It's pretty dim," Will agreed, "has Kurt said anything to you?"

"Nope," Burt answered, "he's not mentioned her. I get the feeling that they aren't as close as they used to be. Now that Blaine is at Yale with Quinn, Kurt spends at least one weekend a month here, one in New Haven and one in New York."

"It sounds like no one has really talked to her much," Carole said.

"Something tells me that after we said that first goodbye at the train station," Emma said, "she made the choice to withdraw from everyone. At first I think it was out of her sheer determination to succeed but I'm not so sure now."

"Hopefully the more we talk about us," Will said, "the more we'll find out. She did say that Kurt told her about Finn wanting to be a teacher."

"Do we know if she knows anything about Santana," Burt asked.

"We were wondering that ourselves," Emma said as Will tried to sneak his hand under her shirt. She smacked his hand and pulled out of his embrace, "If you don't cut that out you're walking home."

"Sorry," he said trying to contain his laughter. He immediately pulled her back in his arms with no objections from his smiling wife and whispered in her ear, "you'll have to go fishing in my pockets because that's where the keys are."

"Okay," Carole said grabbing Burt by the shirt, "I think we need to let these to get back to their shopping so they can get home. It's Sunday. They've got cookies to bake." "

"You know about that too," Emma said, her cheeks turning a deep crimson color.

"Honey," Will said, "everyone kind of knows we always bake cookies on Sunday afternoon."

"Oh my god," Emma whispered

"Baking cookies," Burt said nudging Will as he walked by, "that's what you call it, huh?"

"Burt, take the cart," Carole said shaking her head, "if you don't mind, keep us in the loop on Finn and Rachel. We'll probably be the last to hear anything if something changes. See you!"

"Sure thing," Will said watching their friends walk off.

"Bye," Emma said before turning to face her husband, "well now they know we're going to go home and…and…bake cookies."

"Sweetheart," he said kissing her forehead, "you're pregnant. It is beyond obvious that we've been 'baking cookies' for a while."

Once Emma's cheeks returned to their natural color after being outted in public about their traditional "afternoon delight", they set off on their mission to fill their cart and make their way back home. They longed for the sanctuary of their bedroom and a few days of uninterrupted alone time. If it weren't for the upcoming ultrasound, Emma would have suggested going up to the lake early to get away from things but she was just too excited for that moment to postpone it and knew her husband felt the exact same way.

It took just over an hour for them to stock up and when they finally took their jammed packed shopping cart to the check-out line, they instantly saw they were in for a bit of a wait. With a sigh signaling her agitation of their wait in line, Emma wrapped her arms around her husband's waist and cuddled close as they waited their turn. He smiled and draped his arm around her shoulders.

"Let's order out again for dinner," she said.

"Don't feel like cooking," he asked tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"Actually the whole idea of cleaning up afterwards really doesn't appeal to me and it will cut into our delightful time and I really, really need and want that time with you," she whispered looking up at him and winking.

"These pregnancy hormones might be the death of both of us," he joked, "but what a way to go."

"Is it okay," she asked wrinkling her nose in question, "I'm not being too horrible or unreasonable, am I?"

"No way," he said and then whispering in her ear so only she could hear, "making love to my pregnant wife has always been one of my wildest fantasies and I have to tell you, it's exceeding all expectations."

"Well, as long as I don't wear you out, which is certainly a possibility with the way I'm starting to feel," she said and then changed the subject, "You know, honey, if Santana brings home football tickets, it's okay if you want to go."

"No way," he said shaking his head and using his free hand to move the cart a bit forward, "chances are if she does bring tickets, they'll be for a game in October or November. You're either going to be very pregnant or we'll have a newborn baby...I'm not going."

"Will...," she started to say.

"Babe," he insisted, "I'm not leaving you. Not while you're pregnant, even if it's just for a day. Santana will understand. Besides, you heard Burt, the tickets will get used, he'll take Finn and they'll have a good time."

"I love you," she said reaching up to kiss him, "I didn't really want you to go anyway."

"I love you too," he said slipping out of her embrace. Together they unloaded their cart onto the conveyor belt and greeted one of their students at the register, "and I know. Hi Carrie."

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Schue," their student said as she began ringing up their items, "stocking up?"

"Sure are," Will answered, "Gotta start summer vacation with a full fridge."

"You and everyone else in Lima," she responded sarcastically causing Will and Emma to both laugh.

"Since we've brought up Santana," Emma said, "we've got to figure out a way to tell Rachel about her."

"I know. I asked Quinn what Rachel knew, if anything," Will said rummaging through his wife's purse, "check or card?"

"Um, either one's fine," she answered, "What did she say?"

"I got an email from her last night he said pulling out the checkbook, "she said Rachel doesn't know anything. She never really asks about anyone when they get together. She thought Kurt would have mentioned something. She's also willing to help us tell Rachel before Santana gets home on Saturday."

"When will Quinn be home," Emma asked grabbing a bag of groceries to put back in the cart.

"Hey momma, put that down," he said, "no lifting."

"Will, it's groceries," she said rolling her eyes.

"I don't care. No lifting," he said, "and she's getting in some time tonight but I told her we needed a few days to ourselves after this weekend so she's not going to stop by until at least Wednesday. She can't wait to see you, though. She wants to have a girl's day and go shopping with you."

"It's Quinn," Emma said watching him write out the check. How anyone accepted those things with his chicken scratch she'll never know, "I don't mind if she stops by before that."

"I do," he said, "I want some alone time with you too."

"If we really want some alone time, then let's go up to the lake early and stay a little longer," she said watching him place her checkbook back in her purse.

"You want to, really," he asked as he was handed a receipt, "thanks."

"Bye," Emma said waving to their student who was already back to work ringing up another customer, "Why not?"

"Because it's the great outdoors," he teased pushing the cart toward the door. He smiled a little brighter when he felt her hook her finger onto one of his belt loops as they walked.

"As long as we keep an eye on Doodlebug and make sure she's clean before she comes back inside I should be fine," Emma answered, "and it's a house on a lake, not some dusty campsite _**and**_who says will be spending a ton of time outside anyway or even look at the lake?"


	12. Chapter 12

Once the groceries were loaded in the back of the SUV, Will got his wife settled before climbing into the driver's seat. He was more than ready to get home, get stuff unloaded and put away, scoop his wife up in his arms and show her just how much he loves her. Emma was also chomping at the bit to get home and get a little dirty with her husband, the only man she'd ever let see or experience this lusty, insatiable side of her.

In fact, she saw no harm in letting him put his hand on her as they drove home and found herself popping open a button on her shirt. One button turned into to two and in a matter of a few seconds, her small but growing pregnant belly was exposed and just screaming for Will's hand to be protectively covering it.

"Will," Emma said from the passenger seat, "honey, give me your hand."

"What," he asked briefly taking his eyes off of the road and looked over at his wife. He saw that she had managed to unbutton a few buttons of her shirt and their baby bump was exposed. With a smile he asked, "Is the baby kicking?"

"No," she said taking his hand and placing it on her belly, "Your hand just needs to be here. It's kind of awkward with the seat belt but we'll make due until we get home."

"Are you trying to get started without me," he teased.

"No just granting your request to have your hand up my shirt," she said resting her head against the seat and looking over at him.

"Technically," he said, "this isn't putting my hand up your shirt."

"Well if you don't want to," she joked pretending move her hands back towards the buttons, "I can always just button this back up."

"Don't you dare," he said with a grin, "this is great."

The rest of the drive home Will did most of the talking, which revolved around the upcoming ultrasound. Emma lightly stroked her husband's hand as it rested over their baby and let him voice his excitement. She could feel their baby growing in her womb but seeing it on a monitor was a whole different thing.

Emma didn't want to say anything but the closer they got to the house, the more unsettled she became. She just had this feeling in her gut that things weren't going to be as delightful this afternoon as they both wanted them to be. Little did she know that her worries about Rachel not being able to stay away were about to become a reality when they pulled into their driveway.

"Oh my god," Will said when he saw Rachel sitting on their porch swing, "tell me she's not sitting on the swing."

"She's not sitting on the swing," Emma said, sarcasm just dripping off of her words.

"Funny," he said resting his forehead on the steering wheel, "somebody out there just does not want us to have sex this afternoon."

"I wasn't going to but I guess I have to button this back up, huh," Emma said sadly as undid her seatbelt and looked over at her husband in the driver's seat. Will turned his ball cap around and leaned over the console separating them to kiss her belly gently.

"Just give me a minute," he mumbled against her bare skin. Emma ran her hand up and down his back as he cuddled with their baby bump for a few minutes. Determined to not let a tear slip down her cheek, Emma bit her lip as she watched him. If it weren't for an important doctor's appointment later in the week and Santana's homecoming, Emma would have suggested they pack up and head to the lake right then and there.

"We're not going anywhere, honey," she whispered. She smiled when she realized she now referred to herself sometimes as 'we', "you can do this all night long if you want to."

"I know," he said not bothering to lift his head yet from its place on her belly, "I just want to cuddle now."

"Even if Rachel weren't sitting on our front porch," she teased quietly, "we have a million groceries to put away before we…"

"But we'd be alone and we could kiss and cuddle while we put stuff away like we always do," he pouted, interrupting her, "and you wouldn't have to cover up our little monkey bump."

"Hey," she said gently, "look at me."

Will lifted his head to meet her eyes, disappointment of a ruined afternoon, written all over his face.

"No one wants our special time more than me," she said taking his face in her hands, "believe me, I am fighting with everything I've got to not just jump you right here and right now but we opened the door for this when we let them in the house Friday night."

"We should have gone on lockdown then," he said.

"Probably," she agreed, "but we didn't and we're just going to have to deal with it. We're still just a couple days into summer vacation. We're going to have tons of opportunities to make love, even when we're swamped with things we _**always **_find the time."

"I know," he said with a sigh and moved his hands to start button up his shirt that she was wearing.

"This is good for us too," Emma said, "I know it seems frustrating to give up our time but it's good to talk about our relationship and our marriage. You were right when you said we're falling in love with each other all over again. I don't think it's just our baby fluttering around that I feel in my stomach, it's that same excitement that I felt when I saw you for the first time."

"I love you," he whispered, "with everything that I am and everything I ever hope to be."

"I love you too," she said smiling at the words he said just before he asked her to be his wife. She stroked his cheek with the back of her hand, leaned over and pressed her lips to his. Their lips made love for just a few moments before they pulled apart and rested their foreheads together. "Many more years to come."

Emma kissed him once more gently on the lips and then rubbed her nose against hers. She reached back to turn his hat back around signaling that it was time to bring themselves back to reality and deal with the former student whose terrible sense of timing almost always commanded their attention.

"Okay," he said eventually taking a deep breath and opening his door, "let's go deal with Glinda. Maybe I can get her to help me with the groceries."

"Will," she said opening her door, "I can help you carry in the groceries."

"No ma'am," he said, "no lifting."

"Babe, my purse weighs more than some of those grocery bags," she said closing her door and walking around to the back of their car to meet him as he opened the tailgate, "I don't see you stopping me from carrying that around."

"Now that I know, I just might," he said.

"You'd look pretty silly carrying around my purse but at least everyone would know that you're married," she teased and kissed him, "I'm going to go see I can find our dog, surely the kids have had enough of her for the day."

"Okay," he said grabbing her hand and bringing her back for one more quick kiss. He smiled as he watched her walk away. Even with her back to him, he could tell she had a hand on her belly, no doubt in the exact same spot he had pressed his lips to only moments ago.

His attention quickly turned from his wife to the figure on the porch when he heard a sniffle come from that direction. With a heavy sigh laced with frustration, he walked over to the side of the porch. A part of him wondered if this wasn't just about her relationship with Finn. He knew that Rachel was a romantic at heart and was probably really enjoyed hearing "the story of us". Will also knew that she would try to get them to catch her up on the happenings of the other members of New Directions.

"Hey Rachel," Will said.

"Mr. Schue, I'm so sorry," Rachel said with tears in her eyes, "I don't mean to barge in your time but I don't know what else to do or where to go."

"It's okay," he said quietly, "we said that we'd always be here for you guys and we will. Could you do me a favor though?"

"Sure," she said sniffling.

"Could you help me carry some of these groceries in," he asked, "Emma really doesn't need to be lifting anything. She's trying to fight me on it but if you and I work together to unload the car…I might just win this battle."

"Oh," Rachel said standing up brushing away the tears on her face, "yeah, absolutely."

"Thanks," Will said turning around to find Emma with a small grocery bag and their dog at her heels.

"Before you say anything," Emma said standing firm after seeing the look on his face, "it's just some of the fruit. I'm going to eventually put in a bowl and carry it from the kitchen to the living room. Carrying it from the car to the kitchen is no different."

"Damn," Will said to Rachel, "I should have known she would pull one over on me. I can't strategically plan anything."

"Yes you can," Emma said walking over to the side door, "I just came to play this time."

"What about Bug," he asked shaking his head and handing Rachel some grocery bags.

"She's fine," Emma said opening the side door, "they gave her bath after they let her romp around with the kids and evidently used their blow dryer to dry her off."

"Cool," he said grabbing several bags and walking towards the house.

"Do you always schlep your dog off on the kids next door," Rachel asked as Emma held the door open for her husband and Rachel.

"Only when they ask," Will said allowing Rachel to enter first and then sneaking yet another kiss from his wife before he stepped in the house, "and they ask all the time during the summer."

"You can just set those on the counter," Emma said to Rachel, "I'm going to change really quick while you guys unload the car."

"Looks like you won the battle, Mr. Schue," Rachel said as they watched Emma disappear up the back staircase.

"She's getting tired," Will said walking back out the door, "she can talk a big talk though, can't she?"

"She's certainly a bit bolder than she was the last time I saw her," Rachel said, "but I haven't really seen you guys in two years. We didn't get a chance to catch up when I came home for graduation last year."

"Actually, this is the real Emma, my Emma," Will said as they grabbed the remaining grocery bags from the car and made their way back inside, "she just reels it in when we're at school. You got to see the toned down, professional, keep the kids at arm's length Ms. Pillsbury. She's got an awesome sense of humor that she seems to reserve just for me. She's letting more and more people see it though."

"I can tell that her OCD is better too," Rachel said setting down the bags on the counter.

"It's much better," he said digging into a bag to begin the task of putting things away, "she has flare ups every once in a while but we've devised a few techniques to work through them."

"None of which you are to share with anyone," Emma said walking back downstairs. Changing clothes only involved switching shirts and taking off her shoes. Gone was Will's shirt and in its place, a t-shirt with the word 'PREGNANT' on it.

"Babe, you do realize that you're standing in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant," he asked.

"I'm pregnant," she joked and went to work putting the groceries away, "whatever gave you that impression? Is it the fact that I'm rocking a cute little baby bump or the shirt I've got on with the word pregnant plastered on it?"

"See Rachel, I told you," Will asked with a laugh.

"Can I help you with anything," Rachel asked feeling useless just standing in the middle of the kitchen.

"Nah," Will said, "we have a system. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable."

"So," Emma said moving her purse from the barstool she set it on and gesturing to Rachel to have a seat, "do you want to tell us what happened?"

"Well," Rachel said taking a deep breath, "we left here yesterday and went to McKinley. We wanted to go to the auditorium but the building was locked so we just sat on the football field. It was awful. We didn't know where to begin and then we ended up getting in a huge fight and Finn left. I haven't heard from him since."

"What did you talk about," Emma asked digging into a grocery bag.

"New York," she said quietly.

"That probably wasn't the best choice of topics," Will said walking over to the pantry.

"For the last two years, that's all I've known though," she reasoned.

"You guys are going to have to go back in time a little bit," Emma said, "when you have a history together, you can't start at the present. You've got to start in the past and work your way to the here and now. You'll be amazed at the things that you learn that you didn't know."

"You also have to be ready to own up to the mistakes you've made and learn from them," Will said, "and believe me it's hard but it is so worth it, I can't even begin to tell you. And you can't walk away from an argument."

"I'm scared," Rachel said. Her lack of confidence made her almost completely unrecognizable to the two teachers that knew her the best while in high school.

"Rachel, we told you it would be scary," Will said, "but if it's what you want, you've got to be brave and face your fears. Emma and I were scared too but we worked through those fears together and look where we are now."

"I don't even know how to break the ice," Rachel said.

"You could always ask him what was going through his mind when he decided to drive you to the train station," Will said.

"Will, can you grab the colander for me," Emma said pointing to the top shelf of the cabinet, "why on earth did you put it all the way up there?"

"So you'd ask me to get it down for you."

"You're always so helpful," she said taking the colander from him, "thanks."

"My pleasure," he said kissing her, "literally."

"See Rachel, this is what you have to look forward to when you get married," Emma teased, "a husband who still acts like an adorable little kid."

"You guys make marriage seem like so much fun," Rachel said with a sniffle. She couldn't help but smile each time they exchanged a playful little moment. She actually felt a bit guilty for not coming back more often, if only to see Mr. and Mrs. Schue. Rachel knew she missed out on so much and really hoped they would shed some more light into their history as a couple and fill her in on all that she's missed since her own graduation. She knew, just knew, that she could walk away with not only a newfound respect for them but with a better understanding of relationships in general. She was not at all comfortable going to her dads about stuff like this, Mr. and Mrs. Schue were the next best thing.

"Marriage is fun," Will said watching his wife take to cleaning the fruit they had bought. One of the techniques they had developed to combat her OCD was to gradually decrease the amount of time she spent cleaning fruit. Together they had managed to bring the amount of time she let water run over the fruit from thirty minutes to five. With the help of a little kitchen timer and a little teamwork, it was a huge breakthrough for Emma. Will saw the curious look on Rachel's face when he handed his wife the timer but he had no intention of explaining it to her. "At least ours is. We have a great time, don't we Em?"

"We do," Emma agreed turning on the faucet and setting the timer, "we laugh a lot and it's so nice when you can find that balance between playfulness and seriousness."

"Was it hard to find it," Rachel asked.

"I think, for us, it was already there," Emma said, "being friends first played a huge part in finding that balance. There was so much we already knew about each other."

"But there were still so much we had to learn," Will said, "we had a year's worth of things to share with each other that we missed out on."

"Is that what you spent the next day doing," Rachel said, "catching up?"

"Believe it or not," Will said digging into a grocery bag, "we slept pretty much the whole day."

"We fought our feelings for each other for nearly a year," Emma said walking over to the fridge, "it was an exhausting battle and to be honest, we needed that rest."

"We had a long talk about sleep," Will said handing his wife some things to put in the fridge, "it was a pretty silly conversation but sometimes you have silly conversations. I mean we have them all the time now. It keeps things interesting."

"Did you guys sleep at all before we came back from Nationals," Rachel asked.

"I did but it was hard," Emma said organizing things in the fridge, "even when I was with Carl, I'd close my eyes and see Will. My grandmother once told me when you close your eyes, the first person that you see is the person you are destined to be with. It was next to impossible to sleep when I would close my eyes and see one person and someone else was lying next to me."

"Was it that way for you Mr. Schue," Rachel asked.

"Um," he said looking longingly at his wife. Will struggled to find the right words and leaned against the counter in an attempt to search for them. "If I'm being honest, I was afraid to sleep at night."

"Why," Rachel said looking back and forth between her former Glee coach and Guidance Counselor.

"Because not only did I see Emma when I closed my eyes," he said turning off the faucet when the timer went off, "I constantly dreamt about her and about us and the life we'd have together. Waking up from those dreams sucked. They were so real. I spent a lot of nights willing myself to stay awake so I wouldn't have amazing dreams only to wake up in a nightmare."

"Rachel," Emma said continuing to put away groceries but not before she stopped to affectionately twist his wedding ring reminding him that one of his dreams did become a reality, "do you remember how many substitutes Will had that year? I mean aside from the time he was really sick and Miss Holliday covered for him."

"A handful," Rachel said.

"Those were the days that I had a really rough night," Will said, "and an even rougher morning. I just couldn't face Emma after some of the dreams that I had and before you ask…I'm not going in to details about them. That's between Emma and me."

"You mean you told her about your dreams," Rachel asked.

"Of course I did and I still do," Will said, "I tell her everything. I've always told her everything except for when I couldn't and then we made up for that our first week together. The pot boiled over and everything just kind of spilled out."

"He tried though," his wife said, "He tried to talk to me through his actions. Will thought I wasn't listening but I was. I never stopped but I did a lot of things to give him the impression that I wasn't paying attention."

"Love is exhausting," Rachel said resting her head in her hands. "You guys went through so much more than I realized. I mean, I was there, I saw so much but I had no idea."

"Love isn't easy," Emma said, "especially in the beginning. If you really want to make this work with Finn, you're going to have to take the time to get to know each other as the new people you've become. You're not in high school anymore. Adult love is way different than high school love."

"Rachel, you know better than most that it takes a lot of hard work to make your dreams come true," Will said pulling his wife into his arms.

"Have your dreams come true, Mr. Schue," Rachel asked.

"And then some," he said.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's note: So we're back to the past…think I got in a good grove again! Please, please let me know what you all think! I'm dying for some feedback! Hope you Enjoy!**_

Will and Emma didn't even make it through to the end of "Dances With Wolves". Will held on as long as he could and only allowed himself to drift off to sleep when he was sure that his lady love with comfortable and asleep herself. For the first time in nearly a year, he welcomed sleep. He wasn't afraid to close his eyes because Emma was right next to him, curled up as close as she could get without sleeping on top of him. He even looked forward to his dreams on this night because he was certain they would be filled with the promise of tomorrow.

What he didn't welcome was the shooting pain in his back resulting from sleeping on the floor. "I'm getting old," he mumbled to himself before turning to Emma. She looked so peaceful and he hated to wake her but he thought it would be best for both of them if they relocated to his bed.

"Em," he whispered stroking her cheek. He continued when she stirred just a bit, "We're going to go get in bed, okay? It will be more comfortable."

"Okay," she mumbled.

Will scooped her up in his arms just like he had done earlier in the day and carried her through his apartment and into his room. He gently set her down on the edge of the bed, holding her up with one hand and pulling back the blankets with the other. He took one look at her and realized her exhaustion matched his. "Oh Emma," he whispered as he got her situated and pulled the blankets up around her, "we're quite a pair." Will then walked over to his side of the bed, stopping to open the windows along the way.

Sliding quietly into bed next to her, he was careful not to wake her as she had already snuggled beneath the blankets and was asleep once again. He turned to face her and brushed her hair back with his fingertips so that he could see her face. "I love you," he whispered to her sleeping form, "I love you so much it hurts. You have no idea how glad I am to have you here next to me." Will wasn't sure if he heard her or not but when she cuddled into him and draped her leg over his, he thought she just might have.

It was Emma who woke first that morning. It took her a second to realize that she wasn't at home in her bed but at Will's and in his. She had slept so soundly, she lost all sense of her bearings but was glad to have regained them so quickly and even more glad to have woken up next to Will. Sharing a bed with him felt so right and so natural, like they had been sleeping next to each other for years. He looked so cute curled up next to her. Just as he could see her exhaustion as she slept, she could most definitely see his.

Opting not to wake him just yet, she quietly slipped out of bed and made a quick stop in the bathroom to brush her teeth and run a comb through her hair before making her way to the kitchen to turn on the coffee pot. One thing was for sure, she couldn't wait to get his boxes unpacked and his kitchen back in some kind of working order. At least the coffee pot had already been returned to its rightful place in the corner of the counter. Smiling to herself, she knew Will was no good without at least one cup of coffee in the morning. He told her that her second day on the job when she found him cursing at the coffee maker in the teacher's lounge for not percolating fast enough.

Moments later, with two coffee mugs in one hand and a bowl of mixed fruit in the other, Emma returned to the bedroom. It had started to rain sometime in the middle of the night and its refreshing scent filled the room. Setting things down on the nightstand next to the bed, Emma crawled back in bed and instantly Will reached for her mumbling, "Emma". Smiling, she leaned down and began planting gentle kisses on his face before finally bringing her lips to his.

"Good morning," she whispered as he wrapped his arm around her pulling him down next to her.

"What time is it," he asked, slowly opening his eyes.

"I'm not sure," she said, "you haven't unpacked your alarm clock yet and I didn't check our phones. Is that what you used yesterday morning to wake you up?"

"Yeah," he asked, "Do I smell coffee?"

"You do," she said sitting back up.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to make coffee and a bowl of fruit," she said, "do you want some?"

"Not just yet. Come here," he said pulling her back down and kissing her a bit more passionately than her wake up kiss, "I want to enjoy the fact that I just woke up next to the love of my life for the first time."

"Love of your life," she repeated, "I like that."

"Did you sleep okay," he asked.

"Mmhmm. You?"

"Better than I have in a long time," he said.

"Good."

"So what do you want to do today," he asked.

"This," she said snuggling in to his arms, "I just want to lie here in your arms all day."

"Okay," he said simply, "sounds like a plan."

"Will," she whispered as they cuddled together. The rain continued to fall and with the windows open and proved to be much more soothing than the sound machine she had been using to lull her to sleep. Both Will and Emma were amazed at how relaxed they were just lying together like that. Emma knew that in his arms was the place that she was meant to be…forever.

"Hmm," he answered, his eyes closed and his hand in her hair. The exhaustion he suffered from this past year was not hidden very well even though he tried desperately to keep it from her. He was more relaxed in this moment than she had seen him in a long time. She didn't just see it, she could feel it.

"You haven't slept in ages, have you," she asked.

"Define sleep," he mumbled.

"I mean you haven't had a good night's sleep where you've woken up well rested in quite some time," she said raising her head up from its comfortable place on his chest, "have you?"

"Nope."

"When was the last time," she asked.

"Aside from last night, I don't know," he said sadly, "I guess maybe the night after we kissed for the first time. I remember lying in bed with a smile on my face for I don't know how long. I must have fallen asleep that way. That night was filled with so many wonderful dreams. I was kind of disappointed to wake up but then it dawned on me that I would get to see you and I couldn't get to school fast enough."

"That was the last time," she said, "oh Will."

"I started having trouble sleeping the night of our first date," he said, "that wasn't at all how I wanted that date to go."

"You just wanted to get me into bed," she teased.

"That's not funny," he said, "because I wasn't trying to. I just wanted to kiss you and hold you. When you left, all I could think of was what bonehead thing did I do to make you push me away?"

"You didn't do anything," she said, "It was me. It was me not being ready for the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world. I had come to terms that you were married and no matter how I felt, I wasn't going to break up a marriage. Then all of the sudden, there you were…ready to make my dreams come true and I freaked out."

"You know Terri faked the whole pregnancy to keep me away from you," he said clearing his throat.

"Yeah, I know," she whispered, "you told me."

"I would have left her a lot sooner had that not happened," he said, "I was already in love with you, even then and I wanted to be with you more than anything. I've wanted to be with you from the moment I first saw you."

"I know," she said stroking his cheek with the back of her hand, "me too. I let my inexperience get the best of me."

"Em," he said, "it wasn't just you. It was me too. I hadn't even given myself a chance to heal from that debacle of a marriage. I jumped the gun and that's where I think we went wrong. It wasn't the lack of experience or the fact that we didn't love each other enough. We weren't ready. We just weren't and as miserable as this last year was for the both of us, that's what had to happen for us to realize that we are so much better together than we are apart."

"It sucks that it took experiencing things with other people to figure it out though," she said with a sigh.

"Yeah, it does," he said, "Sometimes I wish we could just hit the rewind button and start over."

"We are starting over," she said turning his face towards hers, "we're a little wiser now and our love is even stronger because we almost lost it. I truly believe that will keep us from making the same mistakes."

"Em, I'm not perfect and I'm still going to screw up once in a while," he said.

"So am I," she said, "and that's okay. We're human."

"You know, the night Terri told me she was pregnant was the first time I dreamt about you," he said after a few moments of silence, "about us."

"Will you tell me about it," she asked rolling onto her stomach so that she could watch the expression in his eyes.

"It was a pretty awesome dream," he said continuing to run his fingers through her hair, "you were sitting on the patio with a book, I think you might have been pregnant too but I couldn't really tell. I was in the backyard chasing around a dog and two rambunctious little girls. We were running through a sprinkler and you had this mortified look on your face because we were all soaked to the bone, including the dog. In an instant though, you turned that look of horror into a smile and started to laugh. It got a little fuzzy after that but the last thing I remember was…"

"Was what," she asked.

"We were making love," he said starting to tear up, "you shouted my name and I had to kiss you to shut you up because the girls were just down the hall. My skin was on fire when I woke up the next morning. I could still feel your kisses and the electricity in them. I was in and out of a very cold shower and out of the house before Terri even woke up that morning."

"Oh wow," Emma said with a bated breath.

"That was the first of many…_many_... dreams like that," he said. "They're all the same too, the same house, the same kids, the same dog. The happiness we shared in my dreams carried me through everything because I really believed that everything would be okay again and in time we were going to make them come true. Then you told me about Carl. I had the hardest time coming to school and seeing you after the dreams I was having. I found things to do at night to keep me awake so that I made sure I wasn't lying in bed dreaming about you. It hurt too much. I joined the 24 hour gym, bought a Wii and beat more video games than I care to tell you…just about anything I could find to take my mind off of you."

"Will," she started to say.

"It didn't work though," he said continued, "There's nothing that could take my mind off of you. Nothing."

"Is that another reason why you thought we should keep things separate for a while," she asked.

"Mmhmm," he mumbled, "I wanted to tell you about my dreams but after sectionals I was afraid you'd tell Carl."

"I wouldn't have," she said quietly.

"But Em, I couldn't be sure so I thought it was best to just keep them to myself," he said, "although I'm pretty sure the night I drunk dialed you, I may have mentioned a few of them to Shannon. Not the ones where we were making love but the ones with the kids and the dog."

"So the whole conversation you two had in the teacher's lounge about the dog was really a part of one of your dreams," she asked.

"Yep," he said, "she was shocked that we had a dog. Shannon suggested that maybe it was a sign that being together would give you the strength to confront and combat your OCD…that maybe our love was worth making the effort to change."

"I'm grateful that Shannon was there for you," Emma said, "you needed someone you could turn to."

"I needed you. I wanted it to be you."

"Well, I'm here now," she said blinking back the tears that were beginning to form yet again. Even with Carl in the picture, she wanted more than anything to be that person but she just couldn't be. She was too ashamed of herself and there will always be a tiny part of her that will never forgive herself for being so unavailable to him, especially when he needed her the most. As hard as it was, he never did that to her. He was always there, she just had to say the word, "if you'll let me, I'm going to try to make up for the time we spent apart."

"You don't have to try," he said, "you're here, you already have."

"I still want to try though. I want us to make up for the lost time. I want us to share our dreams. I've had them too and I'm tired of bottling them all up. You need to hear mine and I need to hear yours," she said, "Please let me try Will. Let me at least start by telling you about one of my dreams."

"Okay," he said kissing her.

"Okay," she asked. He nodded in response.

Taking a deep breath and leaning in to kiss him yet again. She smiles to herself because she can't seem to keep her lips off of him and is so thankful he is just as eager to do the same.

"Okay," she starts, "There have been so many. Some of them were so real that I was devastated to roll over in the middle of the night and not find you there. The best one happened at the worst time and I woke up knowing that I had made a terrible mistake."

"Tell me, Em," he said stroking her cheek.

"We…you and I…we were in the hospital," she said, "I had just given birth to our baby. Our baby, Will. Yours and mine. It was just the three of us in our little world and I didn't care at all about the mess or the fact that I was half naked in a room full of strangers. I don't know if the baby was a boy or a girl and it didn't matter because it was ours. You sang us both to sleep once the medical staff left the room. I could literally feel myself in your arms. I woke up crying. I slipped out of bed and took the little note pad from the nightstand, locked myself in the bathroom and wrote down every detail of that dream. No matter what happened, I never wanted to forget it."

"Wow," Will said simply, "I think we've just established that we're going to have kids one day, especially if we're both dreaming about them."

"I hope so," she said, "but we've got a long way to go before we cross that bridge."

"I know," he said entwining his fingers with hers, "we'll get there and we'll take our time getting there. We don't have to rush into anything. Things will happen when they happen."

"Are you okay with that," she asked, "because I don't know when I'm going to be ready for us to…to…"

"It will happen when it happens," he said, "and I'm going to try my damnedest to be patient but I can't control what happens in my dreams and sometimes they make me a little crazy with frustration."

"I won't hold that against you," she teased, "but I appreciate your understanding."

"Do you remember all of your dreams," he asked.

"I do, well almost all of them. There were so many that I started to write them down in a journal so I wouldn't forget," she said in response, "I'm sure I missed writing down more than one but it got to a point that I would just write down anything and everything…even if it was just bits and pieces."

"How did you get away with that," Will asked, "Carl strikes me as the kind of guy that would stand behind you reading over your shoulder."

"I never gave him the chance," she said, "my journal is on my laptop. Well it's actually on my flash drive."

"Do you keep that with you?"

"I used to keep it on my key ring," she explained, "but when Carl entered the picture, I found a different place for it. There's so much of you in that journal and it wasn't that I didn't trust Carl…I just…I needed to keep it just for me. I didn't share _everything_ with him, like I do with you."

"Maybe we should," he said rolling over to his night stand and pulling out a notebook. He took a second to collect himself before turning back to face her, "maybe we should compare notes or combine them to map out our future."

"You mean like a bucket list?"

"No," he said, "like a list of things we've dreamt about that we want to see come true. They can be little things. Like in one of my dreams, our bathroom had a huge whirlpool bathtub in it. That's definitely something that's doable, right?"

"And in one of mine we had a porch swing," she replied, "I see where you're going with this. I think it's a great idea but do we have to do it now? I mean I really just want to lie here with your arms around me and listen to the rain fall."

"That, my dear, is a wonderful idea," he said pulling her closer. "I love you Emma Pillsbury."

"And I love you, Will Schuester."


	14. Chapter 14

_****Author's note…please forgive me for being a little late in my updates. I started a new job and have had a huge lifestyle and schedule change. I will most definitely be continuing this story indefinitely. You have no clue just how many chapters I actually have written but can't post due to timing and continuity purposes but they'll get there eventually. Please, please, please share your thoughts by reviewing. Do you like this story, do you hate it, what would you like to see? Thanks so much reading!**_

The Schuesters and their former student were silent for a few moments after they reached the end of this chapter in their 'story of us'. Will and Emma shared a smile knowing that one by one they had been able to cross off things from their "dream list". Some of the things were easy to achieve, some a little more difficult and some probably impossible but it didn't stop them from trying. New things were added all the time and sometimes things taken off as life took them down a different path but that didn't matter to them. The most important ones were the ones they worked the hardest for.

A shuffle from Rachel pulled them out of their thoughts and their loving smiles turned into concerned looks when they took notice of the wave of sadness that washed over her. Despite the obvious physical changes she had made after two years of living in New York, they could still see the scared yet annoying Jewish girl with two dads and a lot of big dreams. Clearly Rachel had not grown in the same way the other members of the original New Direction had grown. Some of them had grown leaps and bounds.

Quinn, Santana and Finn had matured the most. Quinn had started her growing process long before any of the other kids. High school had been a roller coaster for her and she had been through more obstacles than the rest of the students at McKinley put together. Emma had always been Quinn's go to person just as Will had been Finn's. For most of his life, Finn lacked a father figure. That all changed when he met Will and learned that a passion for something can take you anywhere. Together they took care of Santana, their first real test at parenthood and much to their surprise were doing a pretty good job at it.

Rachel, however, concerned them a great deal. More and more each time they see her, no matter how frustrated they were becoming by her interruptions, they could tell that she was breaking down. This was certainly an unexpected speed bump to roll over as they began their summer vacation, their final one as a family of two. But, they made a promise to these kids…to always be there when they needed them and clearly Finn and Rachel needed them, Rachel more so than Finn.

They knew she wanted to say something so they remained quiet, waiting for the moment she decided to speak. Not wanting to agitate the situation by continuing to move things around in the kitchen, Will simply pulled Emma into his arms. She rested up her back against his chest and brought both of their hands up to rest on their little monkey bump.

"I dream about Finn," Rachel said at last, "sometimes. If we're meant to have a future together, shouldn't it be more than sometimes?"

"I, um, don't know that there's an answer for that," Emma said from the comfort of her husband's arms, "some dreams we can control and some we can't. Obviously the ones we have while we're sleeping are the ones we can't control. So just because you aren't 'dreaming' about him at night, doesn't mean you're not 'dreaming' about him…does that make sense?"

"No," Will teased.

"I wasn't asking you," she said playfully smacking his arm, "we've already had this discussion…many times."

"I think the bottom line here is this," Will said, "you two are going to have to start all over. Time and distance have made you strangers to each other in a lot of ways. You've got to get to know each other as the new people you've become. You're adults now and that alone changes everything."

"Is that why it was so easy for you guys to step back in to a relationship," Rachel asked, "because you're adults?"

She watched Will pull away, much to the surprise of his wife. Rachel watched Emma's facial expressions change into one of confusion and turn towards her husband. Emma watched him open the fridge and just stare at the contents for a minute before approaching him.

"Hey," she said wrapping her arms around him from behind, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said clearing his throat.

"Oh no you don't," she said, "don't do that. Talk to me…what just happened?"

Taking a breath, Will said, "I don't want to say it. Not here, not now."

"No offense to Rachel but I don't care," she said, "I need you to talk to me. We promised, remember?"

"No," he said trying to walk out of the room but couldn't break free of her arms. She might be small but Emma sometimes had more strength than the two of them combined.

"Honey," she said turning him around in her arms, "it's not going to change anything. Don't be afraid to tell me what you're feeling."

"Rachel just asked us why it was so easy to step back into a relationship with each other," he said.

"I heard her," Emma said.

"It was easy for me to step back into a relationship with you because I never left it," Will said, "when I told you it wasn't over between us, I meant it and with the exception of Holly, which was a disaster in itself, I was committed to you…in every way a man should be."

"And that night with Terri," she asked gently. She wanted an answer but wasn't trying to put more fuel on the fire.

"Emma I told you," he said finally breaking free from her grasp, "I wanted it to be you but you weren't there. You had written me off, remember? I was sick and half delirious. I could barely stand up let alone make a rational decision and if I'm being honest, I wasn't the one in control at that moment. I was weak and Terri knew it and she pounced. As soon as I realized what had happened I threw her out of the apartment and told her to never come back."

"Will, I…I'm sorry," she said shaking her head. She wasn't quite sure what to say or do after his confession but she knew she couldn't argue with him. He was right.

"To answer your question Rachel, yes…it was easy when it finally happened especially since I never really let go of it to begin with," Will said before turning to walk out of the room.

"Will," she called after him.

Emma watched him walk through the dining room and head towards the stairs. She rocked back on her feet and bit her lip before turning back to Rachel and with a sad smile.

"Sorry," she said, "one thing about my husband that I'm sure you've found hasn't changed is the fact he's an extremely emotional man, especially when it comes to me."

"Don't you want to go after him," Rachel said, "should I leave?"

"Yes and yes," Emma said, "but you don't have to go just yet. Will needs a minute to simmer down. I learned that very early on. As attached as he is to me, he also values having time to collect himself."

"I didn't mean to upset him," Rachel said, "I'm just trying to understand."

"It's all right," Emma said turning the conversation back to Finn and Rachel, "He's right though. Time has changed you both. It changed us too but we were fortunate enough to watch each other change whereas you guys have been separated by many miles. Starting over, if it's what you both really want, is going to be hard because you have to get to know each as these new people and you guys are going to have to factor distance into the equation. You both are too involved in school to just drop everything. I think you'll both agree with me on that."

"Is he doing really well at school," Rachel asked fiddling with her necklace.

"Yes," Emma said resting her forearms on the counter across from Rachel, "he really is. We're all so proud of him. He's going to make a wonderful teacher. Finn always says that he's learning from the best and is proud to follow in Will's footsteps. From the minute we found out about the baby, he's really stepped in and taken on lots of extra responsibilities at school to free Will up for when the our little monkey gets here. Keeping Will at school is going to be a big challenge."

"Being a daddy is one of two things that Mr. Schue has always wanted," Rachel said.

"What's the other," Emma said. Evidently he had shared something with the New Directions that he hadn't with Emma or so she thought.

"Being your husband," Rachel said.

"Well, those are two things we've been able to cross off our dream list," Emma said.

"Dream list," Rachel asked, "what's that?"

"Oh I'm sure it's very similar to that inspiration board you used to talk about all the time," Emma said, "we have a his, hers and ours list. Mostly we just work on the 'ours' list. We found that many of our individual dreams were very similar. A lot of the things that we've dreamt about at night have wound up on that list. It's why we keep a notebook next to the alarm clock, just in case we need to write something down in the middle of the night. It's silly, I know but it's a Schuester thing. Doodlebug seems to be the most random thing to make its way into our lives though."

"I'll say," Rachel said with a laugh, "I never pictured you having a pet of any kind. Mr. Schue, yes…you…not so much."

"Rachel, you didn't just miss out on two years of Finn's life but two years of ours too," Emma said, "and Mercedes', Sam's, Mike and Tina's, Brittany's, Noah's, Artie's, and Santana's. You've got a lot of catching up to do with all of them this summer. They'll all be here and not just in Lima. Our house is the hang out house, lord knows why."

"Mrs. Schuester, Emma, um," Rachel said, "it's not just those guys. I haven't been that close with Kurt, Blaine or Quinn either. I mean I see them a lot but I…I…I don't spend as much time with them as everyone might think."

"I thought that might be the case," Emma said.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to keep in touch with you and Mr. Schue, I really did but was afraid because I know how close he is to Finn," Rachel said.

"You know, Will's really good at keeping things separate when he needs to," Emma said, "he told me not to tell you this but he was extremely upset when you didn't come back for our wedding. He was counting on you to sing the song to our first dance as husband and wife."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to," Rachel said, "I just couldn't."

"I understand but I think you need to talk to Will about that at some point. You know, we all need and want to get to know the new you," Emma said, "maybe we can get to know her this summer."

"I'd like that too," Rachel said, "but I'd still like to hear more about you and Mr. Schue if you don't mind. That's been one thing having two dads hasn't really helped with. The unconditional love lessons are there but…but it's just so different from the love a man and a woman experience together. At least I think so."

"Sure," Emma said, "but in small doses. Will and I really want to spend some time this summer just the two of us. There's going to be lots of things we have to do to get ready for the baby that we'll need help with so we're going to count on you guys being here but I want to be alone with my husband too."

"Sounds like a plan," Rachel said sliding off the bar stool. She walked over and hugged Emma gently, "wow you really are pregnant."

"Tell me about it," Emma said putting her hands on her belly, "it's weird, huh?"

"No, it's right and about time if you ask me," Rachel said, "I guess I should go. I promise I'll let you guys have your time together."

"Thank you," Emma said, "we'll call you later in the week and maybe we can go out to dinner or something. You can tell us all about your adventures in New York City."

"I'd like that," Rachel said walking with Emma to the side door, "thank you."

"You're very welcome," Emma said watching her walk out the door.

Emma closed the door, turned around, leaned up against it and looked up towards the ceiling. She wondered what had gotten in to her husband. Nothing he said was anything she hadn't heard before, in fact they had discussed how easily they slipped back into being a couple many, many times. Yet his behavior baffled her. Thinking it was best to give him a few more minutes to simmer down; she finished putting the last of the groceries up and tucked away their recyclable bags.

"Hey Emma, is she gone," Will said slinking back in to the kitchen.

"Will, I thought you were upset. I was just about to come upstairs and check on you," she said turning to face him only to find him standing before her in nothing but his boxers. The sight before her caused an instant light bulb to go off in her head and her jaw to drop. He had faked the whole thing to get Rachel out of the house. "Oh my god."

"Pretty slick, huh," he said with a killer grin on his face. Leaning up against the doorframe he continued to say, "the question is, how many days did you buy us before she comes back?"

"You mean…"

"Yep," he said, "it was all an act."

"Oh my god, honey," she said flying into his arms, "that was genius!"

"Thought so," he said swinging her around in his arms, "you didn't really think I'd give up our afternoon delight so easily, did you? Baking cookies can wait but a delightful afternoon, I don't think so."

"Honestly," she said, "I wasn't sure. You seemed pretty defeated in the car."

"I tried to give you a signal," he said walking them into the dining room. He gently sat her down on the table and put a hand on each side of her and stepped in between her legs, "but maybe it was too subtle."

"What was it," she said hugging his body with her legs.

"Why do you think I opened the fridge and didn't want to turn around," he said looking down and then back up at her with his eyebrows raised.

"Oh my god," she said again running her hands across his chest, "that's why you also stood behind me like that and turned around so quickly. Baby, I love you."

"I love you too, so much, which is why," he said moving his hands to the hem of her shirt, "I had to get her out of the house. You standing in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant was quite a turn on. I couldn't keep things under wraps much longer _**and**_ I realized that today marks the three year anniversary of us making the decision to move in together. So you see, she had to go."

"I am married to one smart man," she said with a sigh as he slipped his hands up the back of her shirt and stopping at the clasp of her bra, "who is wasting no time in getting his hands up my shirt."

"All part of the plan," he said.

"What's next part," she asked.

"Can we take this off," he asked fiddling with the clasp, "kind of hard to run my hands up and down your back with this on."

"In that case you better take it off before I chicken out," she said smiling at the memory before kissing him.

Together they gently slipped her bra off, pulled out from underneath her shirt and set it beside her. Before she could say anything else, he slipped an arm under her legs and scooped her up into his arms. Will Schuester then carried his bride up the stairs to their bedroom and showed her exactly why an "afternoon delight" was so much more than a dessert.


	15. Chapter 15

Over the next few days, Will and Emma found themselves settling quite happily and easily into their newfound coupledom. They had yet to leave the apartment and that was completely fine with both of them. They weren't ready to announce themselves to the world just yet although they both knew announcements weren't going to be necessary after running into the kids at the video store. Being the gossiping fools they are, half of Lima probably already knew that something was going on between the Glee Coach and the Guidance Counselor.

They were constantly amazed at how easily things seemed to fall into place. Moving about the kitchen while cooking dinner was something that seemed so simple yet had the potential of being a disaster, but they quickly found it was one of their favorite things. They knew that they would eventually take turns cooking for each other especially once school resumed but for now, doing it together was so much more enjoyable. Will even suggested that they look into a cooking class that they could take together for fun. "That's a great idea," Emma said when he suggested it.

They spent as much time making out as they did talking. "We've got a year of kissing to catch up on," Will had whispered into her lips at one point and he wasn't kidding. Emma did absolutely nothing to stop him from it either. She loved being in his arms like this and never wanted it to end. They grew closer with each minute that passed and Emma was surprised when an idea popped into her mind that she just couldn't shake. She wasn't sure if and when she should mention it but as their week on lockdown reached a midpoint, she decided it was time to speak up, she just had to pick the right time.

One evening, midway through their time together, Emma walked out of the bathroom to find Will sitting on the edge of the bed, completely lost in thought. With a small smile growing on her face, she walked over to him and lifted his chin with her finger so that he looked into her eyes. She continued to sleep in his pajamas at night, loving being encased his in scent as she slept.

"Penny for your thoughts," she whispered straddling him and settling herself on his lap.

"Just thinking about you and how just a couple short weeks ago we were in here packing up my vests," he said.

"Were you surprised that I kept one of them," she asked.

"Yeah. I was then but now I'm not so surprised," he said tucking her hair behind her ear, "you were trying to tell me something through your actions and I completely zoned out on it."

"I was trying to tell you that I wasn't ready to let you go," she said quietly.

"I should have picked up on that," he said.

"It's okay, you were busy," she said, "nationals were a big deal. It was pretty selfish of me to wear it when I did, I just couldn't help myself. I'm glad you noticed though."

"You look pretty hot in it," Will said, "I can't believe I'm telling you this but I went to bed that night with visions of you wearing _only_ that vest."

"Is that so," Emma asked. "One day I'll have to model it for you."

"Can't wait," he said reaching up and finding her lips. Losing themselves in their kiss, Emma didn't flinch when Will ran his hands along her body. From her legs to her sides and finally finding their way to her hair, Will's hands longed to feel her. He wanted to touch every inch of her body, in any way that she would let him. He wanted to run his hands up and down her back and find out if the sensation was as enjoyable for her as it was for him. Couldn't hurt to ask, he thought to himself.

"Can we try something," Will asked breathlessly as he broke their never ending kiss, "if it makes you uncomfortable, we'll stop but I…"

"What is it," Emma asked from her straddled perch on his lap.

"This," he said slipping his hand underneath the hem of her shirt and gently stroking her skin on his way to the clasp of her bra, "can we take this off?"

"Will, I'm not ready to…," she stuttered. He could feel her heart start to race and her breath catch, "for us to…we've only just gotten back together…it's not…"

"Emma, breathe," he said, "I know you're not…we're not ready to take that step yet. I just wanted to run my hands up and down your back and this is kind of in the way."

"Oh…oh…okay," she whispered.

"You sure," he asked.

"I think so," she said with a bated breath, "but you better do it before I chicken out and change my mind."

"Emma, it's me," Will said trying to comfort her and reassure her that this little step was okay, "and me loves you."

She laughed at his lame attempt to put her at ease and to make her smile. Searching his eyes only to find an intense love beaming back at her, she nodded slowly. It was her signal that it was okay for him to remove a piece of her clothing no man had never seen, let alone touch, not even Carl. Resting her forehead against his, she felt both of his hands find their way to the clasp of her bra and unhooking it slowly. "Me loves you too," she whispered.

Will steadied her as she pulled her arms into the sleeves. "Help me," she whispered. She brought her lips to his and felt him slip his hands back underneath her shirt and together they slid the straps from her arms. Will gently pulled her bra to freedom, his lips never leaving hers. Setting it to the side, his hand immediately found the naked skin of her back once again.

"See that wasn't so bad," Will whispered breathlessly as their lips pulled apart gently, "you okay?"

"Yes, a bit nervous but I'm okay."

"You take us wherever you want to," he said and continued to stroke her back. He was enjoying the feel of her skin against his fingertips and couldn't stand the idea of stopping now, "this is all I wanted to do. How does it feel?"

"Like magic," she whispered bringing her lips down on his once more. As their lips continued to dance, Will managed to gently maneuver them from their position on the edge of the bed to a stretched out one that he thought would prove to be a bit more comfortable. She stretched her legs out to intertwine with his and settled herself on top of him.

The feeling of his hands on her back was probably the most intense yet relaxing sensation she had ever felt in her life. Not once did she let Carl get close to her in this way and this was the very reason why. Despite everything, Emma always knew in her heart that physical intimacy was something that she wanted and would only share with Will Schuester. On more than one occasion, Carl's touch brought tears to her eyes. Carl always assumed it was because of the beauty of the moment he thought they were sharing but for Emma that wasn't the case at all. She was crying because she was sharing the moment with someone else, not the man she truly, madly, deeply loved.

"You okay," he asked again when the need for air became a bit greater than the need for each other's lips.

"Mmhmm. Will, honey," she said sighing and biting her lip. She loved how effortlessly words of endearment rolled off of her tongue when she spoke to him as if she had been calling him those pet names for years instead of just a few days, "you don't have to keep asking me that. If I'm not okay, I promise I'll say something."

"Okay. Um…I think I should apologize now in case something happens to me when we do this," he said silently praying she understood what he was getting at, "I'm going to do my damnedest to control it but I can't promise that I'll always be able to and I don't want to make you uncomfortable when it does happen."

"I'm the one who should be sorry," she said kissing the tip of his nose, "I want so badly to be able to let go and give in to our desires but I just can't yet. I want to, please know that Will. I want to be with you in that way. It's nothing that you are doing that freaks me out. You've always done everything you can to keep that from happening and to make things easier for me. This is all me and a matter of freaking myself out. If you're patient with me and are willing to take baby steps like this with me, I know I'll get there because I want us to make love more than anything."

"I know," he said quietly, his hands now resting on her shoulder blades, drawing lazy circles with his fingers.

"Hey," she said stroking his cheek, "I don't ever want you to apologize if you get a certain reaction when we kiss and cuddle. If anything, it reminds me just how much you want me and want to be with me in that way. It will remind me that I need to be brave and push myself a little."

"I don't want you to have to push yourself though," he said, "I want you to be comfortable enough that it happens naturally."

"I want that too but we can't gloss over the fact that I have an anxiety disorder," Emma said, "I'm not trying to use it as an excuse but it is what's keeping me from letting go. It's what stopped me from going all the way when tried to do this last year. I know how frustrated you are. I know you want nothing more than to take me in your arms and show me just how much you love me."

"Em, I don't want to pressure you into anything you're…we're not ready for, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated," he said, "I've wanted nothing more for two years than to take you in my arms and make love to you like I do in my dreams. I don't just want to keep telling you how much I love you, I want to show you. I want you to want to do the same thing.

"Will, I," she tried to say.

"Please let me finish," he said, "I want and need you to show me that you love me too. I know you do. I can see it in your eyes. I can feel it in your kisses. I want you to show me because you want to, not because you feel like you have to."

"But I don't feel that way," she said, "I _**want**_ to show you that I love you too, in so many ways. I'm just scared and this is all so new. Will, it's only been a few days but at the same time, it's been two years of being in love. You know, if I started going to therapy the first time you suggested it, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

"What would we be doing," he asked bringing one of his hands up to her face.

"Honestly," she said.

"Yep."

"We'd probably be spending all day in bed just like this," she said sprinkling kisses all over his face, "with a lot less clothes on, a lot less talking, a lot more sexy times and maybe a diamond ring on my finger?"

"You've really thought about this a lot haven't you," he asked. There was a sparkle in her eyes he hadn't seen before. One that gave him so much hope for their happily ever after.

"I think about us all the time," she said, "I never stopped thinking about us even when we weren't speaking."

"I know," he said.

"How do you know," she asked, poking him in the chest.

"Because I was always watching," he explained, "I can tell when you're thinking about us or me."

"Can you tell that I've had something on my mind the last few days," she asked.

"Yeah but I didn't want to pry," he said, "I figured you'd tell me when you're ready."

"I'm ready to tell you now."

"You are," he asked. She sat up straddling him again and gently pushed him down when he tried to sit up with her.

"No, please stay just like that," she said taking a breath, "I know that we've done nothing these last few days but talk about taking things slowly…baby steps and what I'm about to say will completely contradict all of that. I think we need to take one giant step right now and then slowly work our way towards making all of our dreams come true."

"What do you want to do," he asked.

"Okay, this is me being brave and pushing myself a little," she said laughing nervously, "and I'll get to it in just a second but I need to tell you something first. Being here with you these last few days has felt so right. It feels like home and I want it to be home…for both of us. I haven't felt so at home in so long. It's really hit me just how much I want to be at your side all the time. The thought of even spending one night alone in my condo is enough to send me into a panic because I don't want to be…"

"Emma," he said putting his finger to her lips, "just say whatever it is you want to say."

"I think we should move in together," she said all in one breath.

"Are you serious," he said wide eyed.

"Yes," she whispered, "I don't want to go home. I feel like I am home. Home is wherever you are. Home has always been where you are."

Will's eyes filled with tears. Truth be told he was dreading taking her back home too. He didn't want her to leave either but he wasn't about to push the envelope and bring up the subject. Never in his wildest dreams did he think she'd be the one to mention it and even more shocking was the fact that she brought it up so soon…just mere days after their tearful reunion.

"Say something."

"Are you saying that we'd get to wake up next to each other every morning," he said, "that the keys on our key rings would be the same? That we get to come home to each other? That we'd share a closet…"

"Yes," she said interrupting him. She could see the excitement behind his words and couldn't wait any longer for a yes or a no. "but it's a yes or no question."

"No," he said sitting up and taking her face in his hands, "it's a your place or mine question."

"You mean," she started to say tears of happiness pooling in her eyes.

"Your place or mine," he said again, wiping the stray tear rolling down her cheek with his thumb, "happy tears right?"

She nodded. It was all she could do as she was completely overcome with emotion. Asking the question to begin with took a great deal of bravery on her part and she was so proud of herself for asking. She knew Dr. Shane would be proud and shocked beyond belief that so many things had happened since her last appointment. She hoped that Will was just as proud.

"I guess I have to ask you again," he said turning the tables, "your place or mine?"

"Yours…here…," she whispered, "for now."

"Are you sure," he said, "even after all that's…"

"I don't care," she said shaking her head, "this isn't about the past. It's about the right here and now and what's to come."

"When do you want to do this?"

"As soon as possible. I don't want to wait," she said, "I don't think I'd make it one night without you which sounds just crazy because I've been doing it my entire life. I don't want to anymore. I want to really take things slowly but this step…this giant step…I think we need to take now."

"Wow," he said laughing nervously, "I couldn't agree more."

"Really," she asked.

"Absolutely," he said.

"I love you," she whispered leaning in to kiss him.

"Me loves you too," he mumbled into her lips, "I guess it's a good thing we still haven't gotten around to unpacking my stuff."

"Your stuff…my stuff…our stuff," she said kissing him with eyes closed tighter than ever before.


	16. Chapter 16

**_***Author's Note...my apologies for the delay...work has been kicking my butt. My hope is to regularly update from here on out however as the ideas are starting to roll out now:) If you have a suggestion...please send it my way! And PLEASE review. I really appreciate it! This Chapter is a bit of Wemma fluff but it sets up the next couple of chapters_**

Emma stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, her body changing everyday as their baby grew. Smiling, she ran her hands over their little monkey, who they would be able to call by name, at least if it's a little girl, in about twelve hours' time. She would always wear his ring but there was something about having a part of him within her that drove her emotions to new heights and it had nothing to do with her raging hormones.

Reliving the steps they had taken to get to this point was an unexpected turn of events as they began their summer vacation. The disappointing loss of their special time the first couple of days of summer vacation was certainly weighing heavily on their minds but Emma was beginning to realize they weren't losing anything. They were growing closer, falling in love all over again and she didn't know how that was possible. They had also made up for that loss in more ways than one over the past few days.

His laughter pulled her from her thoughts. No doubt he was wrestling with their dog. She couldn't wait until that was their child and the sound of two people laughing in the next room, not just one. Smiling, she grabbed a ponytail holder and flipped off the light. She pulled up her hair into a messy knot as she walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

Just as she suspected, Will was wrestling with the dog. It appeared that a rather fierce game of tug of war had ended with the tragic decapitation of a stuffed elephant. Will was on the floor laughing and cursing the dog as he picked up the stuffing.

"Come on Bug. We've got to get this picked up before your momma comes in," he said. The happy dog just looked at him and jumped on their bed and laid down.

"Too late," Emma said, "I've seen it."

"Sorry," Will said standing back up, "I didn't think she'd take out the elephant so fast but I was obviously wrong."

"No worries. Thank you for cleaning it up so quickly though,"she said.

"No problem," he replied dumping the stuffing into the trashcan.

"I can't believe that our ultrasound is tomorrow," she sighed running a hand down his arm as she walked by him, "these past few days have flown by."

"Hey," he said noticing a change tone in her voice. He reached for her hand before she had a chance to sit down on her side of the bed and pulled her back to him, "come here. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It just hit me how tired I am," she pouted, "I think I'm having a delayed reaction to the end of the school year. The walk down our yellow brick road of memories kind of put that off a bit. That and my handsome husband has been spending every spare second showing me just how much he loves me."

"I know but that last part has been quite mutual," he said with a wink and pulling her to stand between his legs. He loosely wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her belly. Looking up at her he continued, "What can I do to make it better? I was going to suggest that we get a little dirty now but judging by those tired yet gorgeous brown eyes of yours, I think we'd better take a break and save that for another day. How about a back rub instead?"

"That sounds wonderful," she said.

"Let's try this," he said kissing her belly gently and turning her around. He pulled her down to sit on the edge of his lap. He let his hands wander from their baby bump up to her shoulders. His fingertips began to work his magic on her tired muscles, "are you okay sitting like this?"

"Yeah," Emma said leaning back into the massage, "it would be better if I could lie on my stomach."

"I know, babe," he said, "I'm afraid you've got a while to go before you can do that again. Avery's just going to keep growing."

"If you keep saying that name," she teased, "you're probably going to jinx things and this baby is going to end up being a boy. Then we'll be in big trouble because we haven't talked about names for a boy yet."

"No way. This is an Avery Grace. I just know it," he said kneading her shoulders.

"I hope so too but I'm just saying," Emma said, "We can't be disappointed if it's not."

"I know and I won't be," he said, "I just love that name. I've had more than one dream where I'm yelling 'Avery Grace Schuester put that down'."

"Well, the baby responds to it. Every time you call it that, I get kicked," she said jumping slightly, still not used to the feel of a baby kicking. She wrinkled her nose and said, "I'm still not used to that."

"That's because it just started happening. I bet you'll miss it once the baby's born and start begging me to get you pregnant again," he teased.

"Will," she said, her tone of voice brought a big toothy grin to his face, "one baby Schue at a time, okay?"

"Okay, okay," he said, "Do you think we could call the doctor's office first thing in the morning and see if there are any cancellations. Maybe we could get in earlier? Not knowing is torture."

"Patience is a virtue, Mr. Schuester," she said, "Our appointment is at 10, and I really don't think they'll be able to get us in any earlier than that."

"Spoil sport," he teased.

"Honey, waiting another twelve hours isn't going to kill you," she said jokingly, "sleep is going to take up most of that time anyway."

"Hopefully, I'll be able to," he said continuing to rub her lower back, "I'm too excited."

"At least try."

"Easier said than done," he responded.

"Please try," she whispered shifting a bit on his lap.

"Come on babe," he said standing them up, "this isn't working too well. I have another idea."

"Honey, I am really not in the mood to…," she said and then stopped herself, "did I really just start to say that?"

"Yeah ya did," he said with a laugh, "I'm not going to hold it against you."

"I can't believe I almost said that," she mumbled watching him pull back the blankets.

"I have a feeling it's going to be one way or the other for a while," he said turning to her, "okay, into bed momma."

"You know," she said crawling into bed, "we spend more time in bed than anywhere else in this house."

"It's comfortable. I'm sorry but we have the best bed ever,"he said climbing in after her. He quickly kissed her as he climbed over her and settled himself beside her, "it's our wind down time from a crazy year at school."

"I think we're just lazy," she said.

"That too," he said nestling as close to her as possible,"if you lie on your side, which side is more comfortable?"

"Why," she said wrinkling her nose. From the look on her face he could tell she didn't want to move but he was going to make her do it anyway. He knew there was no way she'd say no to what he had in mind.

"Because I'm going to scratch your back and let you fall asleep unlike this morning when I wouldn't," he said, "so take your pick you can lie on your right side and stare into the gorgeous eyes of your husband or you can stare at the wall and at that weird little shadow that for some reason reminds me of Sue's glitter cannon."

"Those are my choices," she asked turning towards him and nestling her head on his shoulder, her actions being her answer.

"That's what I thought," he said as he started to scratch her back, "I bet if you turned a little bit more and rested our little monkey bump on my stomach you might be even more comfortable. You'd almost be lying on your stomach that way."

"Um, nice try sweetheart," Emma said shifting a bit, "but it's just not the same."

"I know," he said gently, "maybe while we're shopping, we can find some kind of special pillow or something that will make things more comfortable."

"Why do I need a special pillow when I've got a special man to make things more comfortable," she asked.

"But there might come a time when I can't," he said uncertainly.

"Don't worry about that," she said, "you'll know what to do. Your instincts will kick in, they always do when and where I'm concerned. They always have."

Will could only respond by kissing her head gently. She's right. They just knew how to comfort each other. They always have and both silently thought it was one of the reasons that made their bond so strong, even when they were trying to find their way through that disastrous year without one another. They still managed to comfort each other without realizing it. It was an effortless act of love and despite their obvious attempts, they fooled no one.

"Honey," she said drawing lazy circles on his chest.

"Hmm."

"I'm really excited to see our baby tomorrow," she said.

"Me too," he said. She could feel his excitement start to build again at just the mention, "I haven't been too annoying have I?"

"No," Emma said closing her eyes, "actually, I think it's super hot but I'm too tired right now to do anything about that."

"No worries babe," he said kissing her forehead. He could already tell that she was dozing off. He knew his back scratches were like magic to her and despite the excitement of the day ahead; he wanted her to get a good night's sleep. He just hoped that he would be able to as well. "Good night Cinderella. I love you."

"Love you too," she mumbled and snuggled as close as close could be next to him.

Closing his eyes, Will tried to follow his wife's example and get some sleep but his mind was swirling with anticipation and memories of that first summer. It never ceased to amaze him, and just as he had told Rachel, how easily they slipped into their relationship. It had been such a challenge the first time they tried. What they didn't tell Rachel or anyone else for that matter was the fact that they discussed that very thing shortly after the last box had been unpacked. They also had no intention of telling anyone about their impromptu trip to Florida to visit Will's grandmother. The bond they built on that trip as a result of being with their own personal cheerleader was incredible and they left the Sunshine State more than grateful for her insight and wisdom. His thoughts of the past and the excitement of tomorrow were interrupted when his wife gently patted his stomach and said, "Sweetheart...go to sleep." He chuckled, kissed her head and hoped he'd be able to do just that.


	17. Chapter 17

"Okay," Emma said handing him a glass bowl, "this is the last one."

"It's beautiful."

"It was my grandmother's," Emma said leaning up against the counter watching him admire the pattern on the glass, "she hand painted it when I was a little girl. Every time I went to visit her, she had it full of my favorite candy. She did that just for me. She was always in my corner and was so supportive and encouraging when I was growing up. When she died, I fought tooth and nail for it. It was the one thing of hers that I wanted. My cousin wanted it too because it matched something in her dining room…that was the only reason. It meant so much and finally my grandfather stepped in and said it belonged to me."

"Wow Em," he said looking up from the bowl, "let's not put this in one of the cabinets then. It should be out so you can enjoy it."

"Will, you don't have to do that," she said, "It's okay."

"Emma, this is special to you," he said, "and this is your home now too. Pieces of you need to be everywhere, not hidden behind a cabinet door and out of sight. We need to make this our place…not just mine."

Will stood there for just a second before snapping his fingers and walking through the dining room to the living room. He gently set the bowl down on the middle of the coffee table. "There…perfect. We can go to the craft store and find something decorative to put in it if you want or your favorite candy or we could leave it as is. I'll leave that up to you."

Will turned to find her standing there with so much love in her eyes. He watched her bite her lip to keep the tears from pooling in her eyes but it didn't work and they started to fall anyway. He walked over to her and took her face in his hands.

"He didn't let you keep it out," he said softly, "did he?"

Emma shook her head. Carl didn't like the bowl and wouldn't even listen to her when she tried to explain its importance. She bit her lip that day too but more to keep from arguing with him than anything. That day, Emma wondered what Will's reaction to the bowl and its significance would be. She hoped it would be the one she is receiving now and if she could legitimately kick herself for all she put them through…she would because of this moment.

"He didn't like it," she said, "I was heartbroken because it's so important to me. 'It's just a silly glass bowl' is what he said. I've always known that being with him was a massive mistake, that day just confirmed it because I knew your reaction to it would be so very different."

"You knew it would be like this," he said brushing away her tears with his thumbs, "didn't you?"

All Emma could do was nod. She knew that Will would understand the sentimental value and that he would want it displayed for everyone to see. She knew he would ask without asking why it was so important and gently encourage her to share the story.

"When did she pass away," he asked tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Just after sectionals," she whispered. Because of her impromptu marriage, Emma hadn't told Will about her grandmother's passing even though she wanted to more than anything. He had already distanced himself and the mere mention of his name aggravated Carl. She needed Will during that time and thanks to her actions, she was without the person she needed the most when she most needed him.

"You mean," he said completely stunned by her admission, "sectionals this past year?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me," he asked, hurt by the fact that she didn't tell him and even more so at the fact that he wasn't there to comfort her.

"I wanted to," she said with a sniffle, her heart breaking at the sadness in his eyes, "I should have because I needed you more than anything during that time but Carl was there and I…I…it was all such a blur. I was devastated because I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her and lost because you weren't there with me."

"Oh Emma," he sighed, "I wish you would have told me. I would have done just about anything to make things better for you."

"Carl said that was his job," she said, "and he tried but he didn't know how. Only you do and I pushed you away."

"Well I'm here now and if you need to cry," he said, "then let it all out. My shoulder is your shoulder."

"Thank you," she said laughing a little through the tears, "I'm sorry. I should have told you. Please don't think for a second that I didn't want to."

"I understand," he said, "I mean it hurts that you didn't but I understand why."

"Well then explain it to me," she said, "because I know why I didn't but I don't understand why."

"You had a husband then," he said, "a husband who wasn't really your best friend…a husband who knew that role was already filled for you…a husband who thought once he became your husband, the title of best friend automatically came with it. He tried as hard as he possibly could but that is a title only you can give to someone."

"But I didn't give it to you," she said, "it just happened naturally."

"I think that's one of the most amazing things about us," he said, "things just happen naturally."

"Why is being in love with your best friend so wonderful," she said as she wrapped her arms around him, "I don't have to tell you anything, you just know and if you don't…you have a way of getting me to talk without even trying."

"I think it's because we were friends first," he said, "friends listen and encourage. Sometimes it's a gentle nudge and sometimes it's not so gentle but it's meant with good intentions. My grandmother always told me that the best relationships…marriages…begin with friendship."

"Is she still…alive," Emma asked shyly.

"Yeah," Will said, "she's in a nursing home in Florida though. She and Gramps retired to St. Petersburg, years ago. They lived in a retirement community, very Cocoon like, up until Gramps died. I used to visit them every summer and still try to go see her when I can. That's actually where I went for Christmas break."

"Wait, what," she said pulling away from him slightly, "I thought you said you…"

"I was here for Christmas Eve and Christmas but I left the next day and stayed until New Year's," he said moving to sit on the arm of the couch, "I told her all about you and what happened...from the beginning. She's always known about you, though. In fact the day I first laid eyes on you, I called her. She may be in a nursing home but she's still as sharp as a tack. She's not there because she needs assisted living; it was more or less to curb the loneliness of being without Gramps and she's addicted to Bingo. She told me to be patient because if you're as wonderful as I've made you out to be…she said…she said you'd come to your senses and realize what was right in front of you."

"I think we need to take a trip to Florida," Emma whispered.

"I was planning on going but given all that has happened in the last couple of weeks," he said, "I wasn't sure if we were ready to."

"We, really," she asked.

"Well, I'm not going without you," he said, "if you want to, we can go. I was actually going to suggest we go to my family's lake house but maybe we should go to Florida instead."

"I think we should," Emma said walking over to him and standing between his legs. She draped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips gently to his forehead, "I think we both need a little vacation and I want to meet your grandmother."

"Maybe we could go for the Fourth of July," he pondered, snaking his arms around her waist, "there's a great spot to watch the fireworks on the beach and I know the best little shop for frozen cappuccinos. It's just across from the Don Cesar and has patio furniture inside for tables and chairs. You'd like it."

"I'll like it because I'm going to be with you," she said, "but it does sound wonderful."

"Cool," he said standing up and reaching for her hand, "we'll look into flights tomorrow because right now, I'm starving. Dinner?"

"Sure," she said taking his hand and together they walked back through the apartment into the kitchen, "what did you have in mind?"

"We've got that salmon that we need to fix before it's too late," he said, "how does that sound?"

"Wonderful."

Together they moved about the kitchen preparing dinner as if they had been doing it together for years. The presence of the other was more than enough and because of that, very little was said as they took to making what would become a candlelight picnic dinner for two on the coffee table.

"Will," she asked putting the finishing touches on the salad.

"Hmm," he said cutting up some vegetables.

"Why is it so easy this time," she asked.

"Why is what so easy," he said looking up.

"Being together," she answered, "being in love…being a couple."

"I don't know," he said, "I was kind of wondering the same thing. Maybe because we're a little more grown up than we were a year ago. We rushed into something that we both wanted but weren't necessarily ready for. We knew each other but we didn't know each other like we do now. Does that make sense?"

"Kind of," she said, "I thought I was ready then but I guess I really wasn't. You?"

"I wanted to be," Will said, "I didn't want to lose you so I went for it. I liked you so much, I had no idea it was really love until you told me you were seeing someone…that broke my heart and that's when I knew that I was in love with you."

"We tried too hard," she said nodding in agreement but didn't want to revisit that anymore, "this time though, it feels effortless."

"Yeah but we can't let that be an illusion that it always will be," he said, "we're going to have ups and downs. We're going to argue. We're going to do things to piss each other off and we'll get irritated by the dumbest stuff but we'll work through it because we're in love and because we're meant to be together…because we're ready."

"Speaking of arguing," she said, "do you want to know a little secret?"

"Sure."

"I love arguing with you."

"Seriously," he asked.

"Yeah," she giggled, "I don't know why but I do."

"Does it make you hot," he asked walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her, "and I don't mean, hot as hot like the weather. I mean _**hot**__."_

"Yes, Will, it totally turns me on," she said running her hands up and down his arms, "but don't get any ideas about trying to pick fights with me. It's not going to get you anywhere…at least for a while."

"I don't want us to ever fight," he said, "but that's not realistic at all and we're going to. We just can't go to bed angry. That's agony."

"I know," she whispered.

"Even if it means we'll be up all night," he said, "we have to talk things through. I've spent too many nights going to bed sad or angry. I don't want to do it anymore."

"Okay," she said kissing him gently and then holding up her pinky finger, "pinky swear…we'll work through things before bed."

"Pinky swear," he said with a growing smile, "I love the little things you do to make me smile."

"I love to see you smile," she said shrugging her shoulders slightly, "I'll do whatever I need to so that I can see that."

"It won't take much. Just seeing you and knowing that you're beside me now and forever is more than enough to keep a permanent grin on my face."

"Here's something else to make you smile," she said kissing him again, "another little secret."

"What's that," he asked.

"My grandmother knew all about you too," she said.


	18. Chapter 18

_****Author's note…Here we are jumping back to the present! This chapter sets up a couple of things in the next chapter and I hope to have that posted in the next day or two. Please note it's definitely AU but I really like it and think you will too! Also to be explained a bit more in detail are the "pet names" Will and Emma have for each other. We've heard Emma use it before on the show but I wanted Will to have one for her too**____** Please let me know what you think…reviews are most welcome and greatly appreciated!****_

Will barely slept a wink that night. His excitement to see their baby was boiling over and he couldn't sit still. He hoped his wife wouldn't notice but he was up and down all night with anticipation before finally deciding to get up and take their dog for a run. He used that time to not only try and get some energy released but to think about that first summer. Talking with Finn and Rachel was certainly bringing up lots of memories and his wife had been right, remembering the past and the anticipation of the future, who they would see in just a few short hours, was bringing them closer together. He already loved her so much, to be falling in love with her all over again was incredible. "Lesson learned Schuester," he had muttered to himself, "your wife is always right."

Not wanting to wake her up too early or let her sleep too late, Will jumped in the guest shower, checked his emails and started some laundry before heading back to their room to wake up his bride. Inspiration struck when he went through the mail and found a card from his grandmother lying in the stack. She always sent him a "welcome to summer vacation" card at the end of every school year. They had planned to visit her with the baby for the holidays but got to thinking that now might be a better time.

"Sorry Bug," he said to their dog, "but I think your momma and I need to take a trip to Florida instead of going up to the lake." Will looked down at the dog who sat there wagging her tail happily and laughed to himself. "You have no idea what I'm even saying. Come on, let's go wake up Momma." He started towards the stairs and knew the happy dog would follow. Will quietly made his way up the back staircase and to their bedroom to find Emma cuddled under the blankets hugging his pillow.

"Emma," Will said sitting on the bed next to her. He let his fingers brush her hair back away from her face, hoping his touch would bring her out of what he hoped had been a peaceful night's sleep despite his tossing and turning, "hey jellybean, rise and shine."

Emma sighed and smiled at the sound of her husband's voice but didn't open her eyes. She rolled her head towards the sound of his voice and her eyes slowly fluttered open, "Husband."

"Good morning wife," he said dropping a kiss on her forehead.

"Mmmm," she said inhaling his intoxicating scent, "someone showered without me this morning."

"I'm sorry," he said with a wrinkle to his nose, "I couldn't sleep so I took Doodlebug and went for a run. I wasn't about to climb back in bed with you smelling like the boys locker room at school."

"Thank you," she said with a smile and reached up to cup his cheek with her hand, "how long have you been awake?"

"Awhile," he said dropping a gentle kiss on her lips, "I was up and down all night last night. I finally decided to just get up around 4."

"I know. You woke me up a couple times with your tossing and turning. Someone's just a little excited for our doctor's appointment, aren't we," she said propping herself up on her elbows. She glanced over at the alarm clock and was grateful it was just 8:30. She still had plenty of time to get ready and maybe fool around with her husband before heading out the door.

"Just a bit," he said winking at her, "Oh honey, I didn't mean to wake you during the night but seeing as you're up now, can I wake up our little monkey too?"

"It's okay sunshine. I'm super excited too but I have already learned to value sleep," she said throwing back the covers, giving him access to her belly, "while you're at it...why don't you see if you can give the baby a little "let's cooperate at the ultrasound" pep talk?"

"Can do," he said pushing her shirt back, revealing the bare skin of her belly. He pressed his lips to their little monkey bump and began to speak, "rise and shine little monkey. Your momma and I are so excited because we get to see you today. We need you to cooperate with us though. We want to know if we've got a mini-Emma or a mini-Will joining us in November. Personally, I hope you're a little girl but there's no pressure."

Emma laughed as he continued talking to her belly. She ran her fingers through the curls on his head and took in the special moment her husband was having with their unborn child. Her excitement certainly matched his but he was so much more expressive about it. His touch was so soothing and if they didn't have an appointment, she most definitely would have fallen back asleep.

"I think it's about time to break out the cocoa butter," she said randomly.

"Why, you don't have any stretch marks," Will said pressing his lips to her belly.

"Not yet," she said as he rested his chin on her stomach and looked up at her, "soon though. I can feel them just waiting to take over my stomach."

"It's all part of being pregnant, honey. Does your belly itch," he asked, "the book said it might."

"No," she answered with a small giggle. He's still hung up on that silly book, "but I think the cocoa butter is supposed to help with that too."

"We'll get some while we're out today. I don't think we have any. It can be my job to rub it on," he said, "I can take care of you and get cuddle time with our precious monkey bump. It's a win/win situation."

"Sounds good to me," she said rubbing her belly where the baby kicked suddenly, "Well done Daddy, Baby Schue's awake. The book said we shouldn't be feeling the baby kick for another couple of weeks but I'm wondering if it's because I'm so small that we can."

Will looked up at her and smiled. "We'll add that to the list of things to ask Dr. Reynolds," he said. He felt the baby kick too and was still in awe at what their love at created. Emma let him enjoy some cuddle time before breaking up their tender moment and reminding them they had a big morning ahead of them.

"Honey," she said tapping him on the forehead, "as much as I would like to spend another day in bed being fondled by you, don't you think I should get up and start getting ready now?"

"What," he said lifting his head up, "oh yeah."

"Thanks," she said sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

"Hey," he said, "I've got a surprise for you downstairs. So whenever you're ready, come find me in the kitchen."

"Okay," she said as he took her hands and helped her stand up. When she started to say something, he interrupted her.

"I know," he said kissing her nose, "you can get up just fine now but I'm practicing for when you need me. I can just hear you now, yelling at me from in your office, wanting me to help you up from your chair."

"I was actually going to ask if I could wear one of your shirts again," she said, "but I appreciate you wanting to help me out of bed and out of my chair at school."

"Oh," he said kissing her.

"Well, can I," she asked wrapping her arms around his middle, "you can help me unbutton and button it back up at the doctor's office."

"You bet," he said pulling away and walking to the door, "how about the periwinkle one? You look super-hot in it."

"You know, I think you bought that shirt just so I would wear it," she said walking to the closet, "I wear it more than you do."

"I repeat," he said walking through the door and in the hallway, "you look super-hot in it."

Emma laughed as she gathered up everything that she needed to start the day. She was so excited to head to the doctor's office, see their little monkey and then spend the rest of the afternoon looking at things for the baby and maybe even buying a few things here and there. She didn't want to be out too terribly long because Santana was due home later in the evening and she couldn't wait to see her.

As Emma got ready, Will made his way back down to the kitchen. He patted Doodlebug on the head as he walked over to the counter a1nd plopped down on a barstool. He picked up his glasses and grabbed "What to Expect When You're Expecting". He opened the book to the spot saved by his bookmark. It was proving to be very helpful even if Emma thought he was silly for studying it so much.

He was in the midst of the chapter about the twenty week ultrasound when he heard her moving around upstairs. Smiling, he was quite proud of her for getting in and out of the shower so quickly. Had they taken one together this morning, he knew they would spend more time playing than actually using the shower for its intended purpose so as lonely as it was to shower by himself, he knew it had to be done if they were going to make it to this appointment on time.

"Baby, can you help me…," Emma said walking down the stairs and into the kitchen. She held up a necklace for him to help her put on.

"Sure," he said looking up from the book, "come here, Momma."

"Thank you," she said holding the necklace out for him. She stood in front of him and held her hair up.

"It matches the shirt," he said taking and putting on her necklace. He dropped a kiss on the back of her neck and wrapped his arms around her, settling his hands on her belly, "and once again, you look super-hot."

"Well, you know me," she said turning around and draping her arms over his shoulders, "I like to coordinate."

"Yes you do," he said rubbing their noses together before resting his forehead against hers.

"So what's this little surprise," she asked.

"Oh. Actually it's two surprises," he said, "First of all, I was able to get us lunch reservations at that new restaurant, Zuki."

"Really," she said excitedly, "how in the world did you manage that? It's next to impossible right now."

"I name dropped," he said, "our reservations are under State Representative Burt Hummel."

"Brilliant," she laughed pulling away from him and reaching for the makings of a PB & J. "Halfsie's? Does he know?"

"Sure. He told me to," Will said watching her make the sandwich. He smiled at the memory of the very first PB & J sandwich that they shared, "he said that in exchange for whatever football tickets Santana brings home, we can use his name to get restaurant reservations."

"Good trade Mr. Schuester," Emma teased, quoting a line from their favorite movie, "good trade."

"Well, you know, I try," he said.

"And the other surprise," she asked.

"Well I guess technically it isn't a surprise, more like a question," he said taking a bite of the sandwich and letting a spot of jelly fall to his chin.

"Okay," she said leaning against the counter to wipe a dollop of jelly off of his chin, "you are so messy sometimes."

"Most of the time, I do it on purpose just so you'll clean me up," he teased and then grabbed her hand to lick the jelly from her finger.

"You're disgusting," she said with a laugh, "incredibly cute but disgusting."

"You love me though," he said with a wink, "What would you say if I said instead of going to the lake in a couple of weeks, we should go visit Gram in St. Pete?"

"What," she said with a growing smile, "really? I thought we were going to wait so we could take the baby."

"I just got to thinking that it's about the same time three years ago that I took you to meet her," he said, "I miss her and want to see her and I want her to see you like this because you look so beautiful and let's be honest…do we really want to travel with a newborn back and forth from cold ass Lima to sunny, warm Florida?"

"Oooh, good point," she said, "what about Doodlebug?"

"Santana will be here," he said, "she'd be here if we went to the lake so what does it matter where we go?"

"Okay," she said, "let's do it. We can make travel arrangements when we get home."

"Awesome," he said kissing her, "thanks, babe."

"Will you take me to that special spot on the beach," she asked, "and to Frenchy's and over to Orlando so I can get the baby some cute Disney stuff?"

"Absolutely."

"Then it's my pleasure," she said kissing him back.

The Schuester's piddled around the house for a little while and did manage to sneak in a few kisses here and there before they left for the doctor's office. As soon as they got in the car, Will's excitement sky rocketed and Emma had to remind him that his wife and child were in the car and to slow down. "Will, slow down. We're probably going to have to wait anyway."

"I think you should have driven," he said as they stopped at a stop light.

"Too late for that," she said, "let's just get there in one piece, please?"

"I'm either going to be one of those dads who drives at a snail's pace or is practicing for the Indy 500," he said.

"I'd prefer it if you were the snail," she said taking his hand and bringing it to rest on her belly, "you've got to settle down, sweetheart."

"I think I'm going to crash down once we've left the doctor's office," he said with a sigh.

"Probably but if we're lucky, not only will we get pictures but Dr. Reynolds might give us a DVD," Emma said, "she does that you know. Then you can show your friends."

"Cool," he whispered, a huge smile returning to his face. Emma giggled and turned to look out the window. His driving never returned to the normal, careful way he usually drives.

Thankfully, the doctor's office wasn't too terribly far from the house and Emma only had to endure a few more minutes of her husband's erratic driving. Will soon pulled into the parking lot and selected a spot as close to the office as he could get on this busy Friday morning in Lima. Turning off the ignition he turned to look at his wife, who had her head resting against the headrest. She turned her head to meet his eyes and lifted her eyebrows, creating a priceless look on her face.

"Sorry," he said when he saw the look on her face.

"Don't do that again," she said reaching over to pinch his chin, "especially when we've got our kids in the car. I'll figure out a way to have your license revoked."

"Man," he said opening his car door, "you are going to be one hell of a mom."

Emma made a face and watched him get out of the car and walk around to open her door for her. She unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed her purse before taking his extended hand and getting out of the car.

"And what that's supposed to mean," she said playfully nudging him as he closed the door behind her.

"It means that you're going to be one hell of a mom," he said kissing her temple as they began to walk towards the entrance to the doctor's office, "it's a good thing. If I can't get away with stuff, there's no way our kids are going to be able to when they try."

"I think working at a high school is excellent practice for when our kids are teenagers," Emma said as they approached the door. She smiled when he opened the door for her, something he always did when they were out and about together without fail. "By the time they're in high school, we'll have seen and dealt with every trick in the book."

"By then, they'll have come up with a ton of new tricks," he said moving his hand from his secure place in hers to her shoulder as they walked up to the sign in desk. He stood behind Emma with both hands on her shoulders as she signed in, both of them giving a bright smile to the receptionist.

"Have a seat," the receptionist said politely, "it should only be a few minutes."

"Thank you," Emma said as they turned to find a seat in the waiting room. It was a bit busy with other patients, but Will was the only husband in the room. "I'm so glad you're able to come to all of my appointments with me and that you want to. I don't know how Sue did it by herself. That would be awful."

"Jellybean, I wouldn't be anywhere else. This is our baby and our first one at that. Of course I'm going to be here for all of the appointments. Same goes for when we have our second baby and if we decide to have a third one, I'll be there too," he said kissing her cheek as they sat down, "and as for Sue, that was her choice. We went with her to the important one and Shannon said she went with her to a few as well."

"I love you," she whispered in his ear. She rested her chin on his shoulder as his free hand found its way to her belly, lovingly caressing it as they waited. They couldn't have cared less if anyone in the room was watching their quiet little scene.

"I love you too," he said.

They sat for just a few minutes more, lost in their own little world. They made small talk about the weekend and just as Will was going to mention something about Florida, a nurse appeared and called Emma's name.

"Emma," the nurse called.

"Come on sunshine," Emma said standing up and reaching for her husband's hand, "let's go say hi to our baby."

Will practically leapt out of his chair to follow his wife and the nurse. He tried his hardest to restrain his excitement but it was pretty clear that this first time daddy was over the moon with anticipation. He had felt this same kind of excitement the day Emma walked down an aisle to him in a long white dress. He had to stop himself from running to his destination on that day too.

Emma could feel his excitement and decided to let him be rather than tell him to fight it because in reality, she's just as giddy as he is but doesn't want the moment to be over before it has even begun so she held back a bit.

They stopped just outside the room where the ultrasound equipment was set up so that the nurse could take Emma's vitals. Will took her purse without even asking and watching with a protective glare as his wife was weighed and had her blood pressure taken. Sensing his stare, Emma turned to meet his eyes and raised her eyebrows, "it's fine honey," she said simply hoping he'd understand that she was okay and he didn't have to worry. His need to protect both his wife and child soared in a matter of seconds when they were in the hands of someone else. Emma loved him for that.

"This is an exciting appointment for you today," the nurse said with a smile. She has seen her fair share of overprotective fathers make their way through this office and Will ranks right up there with the best of them. "Dr. Reynolds is going to do the ultrasound herself rather than the tech. She wants to check in with you herself and make sure everything is going well."

"Okay," Emma said following her into the exam room. She reached behind her for her husband's hand and instantly felt him thread his fingers in between hers, "we're up for anything as long as we can see our baby."

"I think we can arrange that," the nurse said dropping her file on the counter, "have a seat and Dr. Reynolds will be in shortly."

"Great," Emma said watching the nurse leave and then turning to her husband, "are you okay?"

"Yep. Just feeling a little protective," he said helping her to sit up on the exam table. He stood before her, placing a hand on either side of her and kissing her forehead, "that is kind of hard to restrain."

"I know," she said moving his hands to the buttons on her shirt, "here, get cracking on these. That will get your mind back on track."

"Not necessarily," he teased, "it might send it somewhere else."

"You mean to tell me you haven't had enough yet," she teased back, "after all we've done this week?"

"Never. In fact," he started to say as the door to the exam room opened and the doctor entered.

"Hi guys," Dr. Reynolds said walking into the room shaking her head. She heard the exchange between the married couple and found it to be rather cute, "sorry to interrupt but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask that you keep it the sex talk out of my exam room."

"Sorry," Will said blushing as he finished unbuttoning Emma's shirt to the stopping point she showed him.

"I'm just kidding," Dr. Reynolds said with a wink, "if it weren't for that, you wouldn't be here for this and I can see you are quite anxious to get the show on the road."

"Very," the Schuester's said together.

"Well, let's get to it and then we can go over a few things and send you on your way," Dr. Reynolds said setting up the equipment, "this is the exciting visit. Do you guys want to find out what the baby is?"

"Absolutely," Emma said, "Will gave the baby a pep talk this morning so hopefully we'll get some cooperation."

"Let's hope so," the doctor said, "all right Emma, get ready for a jolt of cold goo."

"Okay," Emma said reaching for Will's hand as the doctor squeezed the gel onto her stomach.

"Don't worry, Em," he said seeing her grimace when it made contact with her skin, "we'll get it off just as soon as we can."

"It's not that," she said. She could have honestly cared less at the thought of something like that being on her skin but the fact that it was so cold was another story, "it's really cold."

"Okay guys, here we go," the doctor said putting the wand on Emma's belly and directing their attention to the monitor on the wall above them. She smiled and watched the expression on the first time parents as their baby's image came into view on the flat screen monitor.

Smiles and tears instantly formed when their baby appeared before them, tucked safe and sound in Emma's womb. "Will," Emma whispered.

"I know jellybean," he said choking up a bit, "there's our little monkey. Does, um, does the baby look okay Dr. Reynolds?"

"Everything looks great," the doctor said watching the image closely and then smiling when she realized that the baby was indeed going to cooperate, "so do you have a name picked out for your daughter?"

Will and Emma immediately took their attention off of the monitors and directed it towards the doctor who was grinning brightly. Their mouths both dropped open in shock that their baby was a little girl.

"It's a girl," Emma asked.

"It most certainly is," Dr. Reynolds said.

"Oh my god," Will and Emma said together.

"Will, you were right," Emma said reaching up to kiss her husband who stared at the screen with tears in his eyes.

"I don't know what to say," he whispered looking down at his wife and then dropping a kiss on her lips and hugging her as best he could.

"You can tell the doctor her name," Emma said sniffling looking back at the screen. She watched the baby stretch and smiled when she felt it at the same time.

"Avery Grace," he said, "after my grandmother."

"That's a beautiful name," the doctor said, "she's certainly wiggly this morning. Emma are you feeling this?"

"Yeah," Emma said moving her hand from its placed in Will's to his cheek and then up through his hair before finally settling on the back of his neck. He looked at her and leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. His dream had come true. He was beside himself and knew the minute they got back to the car, the tears of joy would really start to fall.

The next few minutes were a blur for the Schuesters as reality sank in that their baby now had an identity and in a matter of months a beautiful baby girl would be coming into their world. The doctor talked to them about the baby's growth rate and insisted that things were looking great for both Emma and Avery. She made a mental note to call them back in a few days just to see if they had any lingering questions as she did with most parents after this momentous occasion. She knew that any questions they had been meaning to ask had gone out the window the minute the little life their love had created appeared before them.

The amount of love that Will has for the woman he pledged his life to completely consumed him in this moment. He totally forgot that anyone else was in the room aside from his wife and their baby, healthy and strong, growing inside of her. Will couldn't wait to share this news with his grandmother and judging by her reaction to an impromptu trip to Florida, he knew Emma would be just as excited. His thoughts drifted back once again to that first summer when his two favorite girls met for the very first time. He wished he could relive that moment again and couldn't wait for his grandmother to meet their new little addition. His grandmother had told him on his darkest day that she knew there would come a time when he and Emma would visit her to tell her that a little miracle was on its way and he couldn't wait to tell her she was oh so right.


	19. Chapter 19

_*****Author's note…My apologies for the delay in posting. This chapter takes us back to the past and I thought it was important to embellish on how Will and Emma came up with each other's nicknames as were mentioned in the previous chapter. Not to worry though, as the story moves along, scenes we've come to love in Season 3 will pop up and again will be interwoven with the present time.**_

Once the decision had been made to take a pilgrimage to Florida, Will got to work on planning their first ever vacation together. He was so excited to finally be able to introduce the woman he had spent so much time talking about to his grandmother. He knew that Grace Schuester would be so thrilled that things finally worked out the way that she insisted they would and he hoped Emma would come to love her just as much as he did.

To say that he wasn't also a bit nervous about the trip would be a lie…especially where intimacy was concerned. Time and time again he reassured Emma that he would follow her lead and only venture as far as she was comfortable going but it was becoming increasingly difficult. Will didn't want to pressure her into anything she wasn't ready for despite how he felt about the subject. What he didn't know was the fact that she was well aware of his frustration and becoming increasingly disappointed in herself that she couldn't get over that hurdle and give into their desires…because she wants it just as much as he does.

They enjoyed a few weeks of lounging around and just being together before they found themselves packing for the trip. Will couldn't help from smiling every time he opened one of the closet doors or pulled open a drawer and found something of Emma's tucked in there too…as if it had always been there. For the first time and despite having shared it with Terri, this apartment felt like home.

"Okie doke, sunshine," Emma said walking out of their bathroom into their bedroom with her toiletry bag and pulling him out of his thoughts, "I think I'm all set for our little adventure."

Will stopped dead in his tracks of packing when he heard the pet name roll off of her tongue. It was music to his ears but he was stunned that 'sunshine' was the name she called him. He grew up with his grandmother calling him 'sunshine' but he never shared that bit of information with anyone, not even Emma…at least not yet.

"Um," he said clearing his throat, "what did you just call me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said dropping the bag into her suitcase, "it was an attempt at a pet name for you, do you not like it?"

"It's not that," he said stuttering over his words, "it's just my grandmother calls me that."

"Will, I'm so sorry. I can totally come up with something else," Emma said with a panic in her voice, "it just popped in my head and I had to try it out."

"Please don't," he said, "try to come up with something else, I mean."

"But if that's what your grandmother calls you," she said, "I don't want to take that away from her."

"She's not going to mind," he said walking over to her and taking her face in his hands, "and I want you to call me that. I love it and I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered, "but I…I can…"

"Emma, no," he said sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling her to stand between his legs, "I want to be your sunshine so don't you dare even think of trying to come up with something else, I mean aside from honey, sweetheart or babe. Ok? Promise me?"

She looked into his eyes and could see the love he was emitting from them, love he had only for her. Emma leaned in and kissed him softly. "I promise, my sunshine." Will pulled her to sit on his lap and deepened the kiss, dipping her back slightly.

"I'll have to come up with something for you," he said loosely wrapping his arms around her waist when they finally came up for air, "but I need a bit to think about it."

"I'm sure whatever you come up with will be perfect," she said kissing his nose, "as long as it's not Lucy or Hot Lips Houlihan."

"Damn," he teased, "and those were on the top of my list."

"Yeah right," she giggled.

"No seriously," he said, "I can just see the kids' faces now after I yelled Hot Lips in the halls of McKinley."

"I'd have to pretend I didn't know you," she said, leaning in to kiss him again, "and then punish you severely when we got home."

"Punish," he asked raising an eyebrow, "what does that entail?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

"Hmmmm. You may have just convinced me that I need to misbehave every once in a while," he said tucking her hair behind her ear, "seriously though, we need to finish up here. We've got a plane to catch in a few hours."

"I'm excited to get away from Lima for a few days," she said pulling away, standing up and returning to her suitcase, "it will nice to be a couple without constant being under a microscope."

"Em," he said, "we're going for more than just a few days. I thought we'd stay through your birthday."

"Will, that's nearly two weeks," she asked, "we can't afford a hotel for that long."

"We're not staying in a hotel," he said returning to his suitcase.

"We're not," she asked.

"Nope," he responded, "we're staying at a beach house."

"A beach house?"

"Yep," he said, "before they retired to Florida, Gramps and Gram invested in this house as part of a time share and they'd spend the winter on the beach every year. When they made the official move, everyone just assumed they opted out of the time share but then the owners decided to sell and Gramps bought the house and didn't tell anyone. When he passed away, the attorney called Gram and I into a private meeting and handed us the keys. I thought there for a while that Gram was going to move into the house but she had too many friends in the retirement community they so she ended up staying there, moving out of that house and into the assisted living part of the complex. She just didn't want to deal with the upkeep of a house at her age and she's having the time of her life there believe it or not."

"You mean to tell me that you have a beach house," she asked closing her suitcase.

"Technically it won't be mine until Gram passes," he said, "but yeah I guess you could say that."

"Wow," Emma said grabbing their cell phone chargers and dropping them in her purse.

"I've only used it a couple of times," he said closing his suitcase and looking around their bedroom to see if he had forgotten anything, "much of last summer and I…I…I spent Christmas break there but I already told you that."

"I know," she said sadly. She flinched at the thought of this past Christmas when he declined her invitation to her holiday party. Emma supposed that she would always flinch at that memory. She had been so disappointed but couldn't blame him one bit for choosing to put that distance between them.

"Like I said…I was here for Christmas Eve and Christmas…you know for my parents…but left the day after and stayed there until New Year's," he said pulling his suitcase off the bed and then reaching for Emma's, "I just wasn't in the holiday spirit. I thought at the very least, the relaxing sound of the waves would help me catch up on some sleep but I don't know that I slept at all that week…I spent too much time thinking about you….wishing you were there with me…like I do all the time."

"I came over here the day after Christmas and knocked on your door," she said quietly as she grabbed their carry-on bags and her purse. It was time that she shared her holiday secret with him.

"You did," he asked stopping just before he reached the front door.

"Yeah," she said peeking into the living room to make sure the lights were off, "I guess that explains why you didn't answer but your car was…"

"Finn took me to the airport," he said opening the door. "Why did you come over?"

"I needed to see you," she said stopping just before she walked out into the hall, "that's all."

"It's probably best that you didn't," he said moving to stand in front of her and rubbing her arms, "I was a mess, a complete mess. But…had I known about your grandmother, I would have stayed."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, swallowing back a building sob in her throat and looking down, "I should have told you."

"Hey," he said tilting her chin up so she'd look him in the eyes, "I said no more apologizing for what happened. We're moving on and forward. We've already moved in together and we have so many things to look forward to. It's pointless to dwell on the past, especially when it sends us both back to tears and I for one would like to cry happy tears from now on…not sad ones. Okay?"

Emma couldn't find a single word to say in response so she simply stared at the man before her, the man with whom she was so hopelessly in love and would spend the rest of her life with.

"Okay," he said again taking her face in his hands.

Emma finally managed to give him a small nod.

"That's my girl," he said kissing her forehead and walking out the door, "now let's get out of here."

"Will, wait. Please. I need to say this and then we can go," she said pulling him back, "I wanted and needed to spend Christmas with the man I love and I needed that man to hold me because his touch is the only thing that has ever given me any comfort. That's why I came over here that day. My timing just wasn't right."

"Don't worry Em," he said with a smile, "you'll get your chance…in fact you'll get a lifetime of chances to do that and for me to hold you…I was planning to do that on the plane. Now come on…if we don't leave now we'll miss our flight."

"I love you," she said. Words so simple yet mean so much.

"I love you too," he said dropping a quick kiss on her lips.

With that, Will and Emma gathered their luggage and made their way down to her car and set off for the airport. Will held her hand gently…their fingers perfectly threaded together the entire way and she listened intently to him rattle on about all of the things that they could do and see while they were on the Gulf Coast. "First things first," he said, "I'm taking you straight to meet Gram." She smiled but the butterflies still swirled in her stomach about the impending introductions or was it the flight itself or was it both? Regardless of the reason, she had her protector with her and knew that this was the first of many memories they would make together.

Arriving at the airport, Will sensed a tension wash over his favorite girl. The hustle and bustle was not at all to Emma's liking but he knew he could help her through the chaos and he knew that she'd let him.

"Don't worry Em," he said as they walked to the check in desk, "I'm not going to let anything happen."

"I know," she said walking closely beside him, "you've always done a good job at taking care of me."

Will smiled at her and leaned over to kiss her forehead. The smile remained on his face as they joined the line at the check in point. Making small talk as they moved through the line, Emma found herself doing something that she would do for many years to come without even thinking…she hooked her finger onto one of the belt loops of his jeans and that simple gesture did not go unnoticed by her man.

Leaning up against him as he took their ID's and checked them in, Emma zoned in and out of the conversation, she was just so happy to be here with…or anywhere for that matter with him.

"Come on babe," he said taking her hand now that they were free of everything but her purse and their carry-ons, "let's head towards the terminal. We've got about an hour before the flight leaves. I think I might stop and get a book to read or something. Do you want anything?"

"Um," she said when pulled her out of her thoughts, "I brought a book with me but I'd love some…oh you'll think I'm silly."

"What is it," he asked with a curious smile.

"Jellybeans," she said bashfully, "I'd love some jellybeans…jelly bellys."

"Jellybeans," he asked, "really?"

"They're my favorite," she giggled, "I know, it's silly."

"No it's not," he said as they walked into a duty free shop, "we've all got a sweet tooth for something. You know what mine's for."

"Oh yes," she joked, "I'm in love with the cookie monster."

"Damn skippy," he laughed looking through the books, "jellybeans, really?"

"Don't tease me," Emma said poking his arm.

"I'm not honey. I guess it just surprises me," he said watching her walk over to the candy, "I don't know that I've ever seen you eat candy before."

"I don't," she said, "well, not regularly but I've always loved jellybeans. My grandmother used to…"

"That's what she put in the bowl," he said when her voice cracked a bit and then trailed off, "wasn't it?"

Emma stopped what she was doing and looked down at the two small bags in her hands. She said nothing but knew she didn't need to. Will walked over to her and stood behind her, rubbing her arms gently.

"It's okay," he whispered in her ear, "I'm here."

"I know," she said turning around to face him, "and you have no idea how grateful I am for that."

"Oh but I do," he said kissing her nose and taking the candy from her, "come on my jellybean, let's get out of here."

They both stopped in their tracks when the words "my jellybean" were spoken. A light bulb went off for both of them and Will looked over her and smiled.

"That's it, isn't it," he asked excitedly, "your pet name?"

"I think you've found it Mr. Schuester," she said with a wink.

"Yeah," Will asked with a silly grin.

"Yeah," Emma replied kissing him and then urging him to get a move on like he had been doing all morning, "now come on. We do have a plane to catch and an introduction to be made."

Will quickly paid for his book and her jellybeans and they made their way to the gate with only a few minutes until they called for boarding. Little was said as they finally boarded the plane and found their seats. Will and Emma moved about in almost perfect unison, as if they had been travelling together forever. Once they found their seats, they pulled out their books, cuddled together and shared the jellybeans...Emma smiled to herself knowing that as soon as they got home, Will would fill her favorite bowl with jellybeans and he'd keep it full for years to come.


	20. Chapter 20

_*****Author's note…jumping back to the present and enter Santana…next chapter will be the first meeting between Emma and Will's grandmother and will hopefully be posted this week. Please read and review…I'd love to know what you think! Thanks for reading!**_

Will had been rendered completely speechless at their ultrasound. His dreams in fact were coming true and in several months, the little girl from his dreams would be born. He said nothing after the moment he told the doctor the baby's name and continued to be in a world of his own while Emma scheduled their next appointment and asked a few questions that she had managed to remember despite the excitement of learning that their little monkey was not only healthy and growing steadily but also the little girl they both dreamed of having.

When they arrived at their SUV, rather than open the door for his wife, he gently pinned her to it and dropped to his knees. Tears pooled in his eyes and he hugged her around her middle, just like he did that day in the hallway at McKinley. He kissed her belly gently and rested his cheek against it trying to hold back the subtle sobs that were welling up in his throat.

"Will, honey," she said resting her arms on his shoulders as he held her closely, "are you okay?"

"I'm over the moon," he spoke softly, "just give me a minute. I want to savor holding you and Avery for the first time."

Emma stared down at him with so much love in her heart. To be the one to have a hand in making his dreams come true is something she's wanted from the moment they first saw each other.

"Sunshine," she said gently as she stroked his hair, "you held us just this morning."

"That was before we knew that she's officially an Avery," he said kissing her belly again, "it's different now."

"You've always known," she whispered, "and you were right…a dream come true. Now come here and pay a little attention to your wife. Your daughter isn't going anywhere for a while."

"My daughter…our daughter," he whispered standing up and hugging her. He lifted her off the ground and carefully swung her around. She wrapped her arms around him tightly and through the excitement, her lips found his.

"Mmm," she whispered into his lips, "I love you."

"I love you too," he said gently pulling away from her and resting his forehead against hers, "Em, we're having a baby girl."

"I know, sunshine," she said, "she's still going to be our little monkey, though."

"Always," he said kissing her again, "you have made me the happiest man alive, do you know that?"

"I can only hope that I've made you as happy as you've made me," she said.

"Oh jellybean, you have! In so many ways. We're married, having a baby…all I've ever wanted is to share this life with you," he said gently setting her back down.

"It's all I've ever wanted too," she said kissing him again, "you know, there's something you can do that will make me even happier."

"What's that," he asked tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Feed us," she said, "Avery and I are starving."

"Halfsies on a PB & J didn't cut it this morning, huh," he said reaching into his pocket for the keys.

"Nope," she said watching him unlock and open the door for her and help get her situated, "Dr. Reynolds said my appetite is going to sky rocket soon so be forewarned, Daddy."

"When did she say that," he asked as he walked around to the driver's side.

"When you drifted off to Never Never Land," she answered as he climbed in the car.

"Yeah, I kind of got lost in the moment," he said turning on the ignition, "sorry about that."

"Don't be," she said, "You just found out that you're going to be a daddy to a little girl. You have every right to get lost in the moment. I get lost in the moment all the time; it's just a bit different for me because she's a part of me right now."

"I guess now we get started on the monkey's jungle nursery, huh," he asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"That's probably a good idea," she said reaching for his hand, "I'd love to have it ready before we head back to school in September and with Santana, Finn and your father to help us…I can't imagine it taking super long."

"May I remind you how long it took you to decorate our bedroom when we moved into the house," he teased, "if the nursery is done by September it will be a miracle."

"It'll be done by September. It has to be or I'll lose it. We both know I will. We just need to get more of the Glee kids to help us," she said rolling her eyes and then taking note of his driving, "now this, Mr. Schuester, is how you should have driven to the doctor's office."

"We're alive and I didn't get a speeding ticket," he said releasing her hand and reaching to run a hand over her hair.

"You're a handful, do you know that," she giggled.

"I'm your handful," he said, "and you love it."

"I love _you_," she said emphasizing the you.

"Love you too jellybean," he said and then he changed the subject, "so I have a confession to make. We're not having lunch alone."

"What," she asked, "we're not?"

"Nope," he said as the got closer to the restaurant, "and the answer to your next question is, you'll see."

"This isn't some kind of surprise party or anything, is it," she asked nervously.

"God no. I know better than that," he said, "just one person is joining us. You'll be happy, I promise."

"Okay," she said shaking her head and watching out the window. She looked back over at her husband who was biting his lip not to laugh and she knew he had something up his sleeve. "Will…"

"Em, I promise," he said laughing, "it's totally cool. It's not one of our parents, it's not even Rachel Berry."

"As long as there's food," she said, "I'll let this slide."

Will continued to restrain his laughter the rest of the way to the restaurant. He knew Emma would love to see who was waiting for them but he enjoyed the tease. This had been a hard secret to keep but he did have to admit the early morning run story was pure genius and his half-awake wife totally fell for it. Part of him wondered when all was revealed if she would punish him "severely" like she always does when he tries to pull one over on her even though this was the first time it had actually worked.

Before too long, they pulled into the restaurant's parking lot and hunted for a space.

"Too bad there aren't any expectant mother parking spaces here," Will mused.

"I am not broken Will," Emma countered, "We are not going to constantly take advantage of that. I can walk and more importantly, so can you."

"But it's fun," he said, "and I want everyone to know we're having a baby."

"I think just looking at me is a dead giveaway," she said shaking her head, "you amaze me sometimes."

"Again I just have to say, you love it," he said pulling into a parking spot.

"Strangely I do," she said leaning over and kissing his cheek, "why I don't know but I do."

"Because I'm irresistible," he said winking at her and watching her gather up her purse.

"I'm not even going to touch that one," she said opening her car door, "not until we get home anyway."

"Am I going to be punished," he asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," she said stepping out of the car and reaching out her hand for him to take.

"I hate it when you say that," he teased.

"No you don't."

Will laughed, shook his head and took Emma's hand…together they walked to the entrance of the restaurant, both glowing. Will opened the door for his wife and whispered in her ear as she passed by him, "You're glowing and you look so beautiful." Emma smiled and reached up to kiss him gently before they proceeded into the restaurant. "Thank you."

Will could see their over the hostess and let her know that their party had already arrived. He waved to them before turning to his wife.

"Come on, momma," he said pulling Emma into the restaurant and passed a few tables, "your surprise is already here."

Emma looked at him with skeptical eyes but followed him happily. Already feeling a bit overwhelmed, she was just a tiny bit hesitant at her husband's latest surprise until she saw who was waiting for them. Santana was sitting at a table by the window texting. She stopped in her tracks, not expecting Santana to be home so early. Santana looked up from her phone, smiled and waved. She stood up excitedly as the two people who had come to mean so much to her made their way to the table.

"I told you it was a good surprise," Will whispered in her ear, "this is the real reason why I was up at four this morning. Santana got home super early."

"Was she downstairs the whole time we were getting ready this morning," she asked as they approached the table.

"Yep," he said with a smile and a kiss to her forehead.

"And the whole run with Doodlebug," Emma questioned.

"I made it up…sorry," he said wrinkling his nose before flashing a huge grin, "when was the last time you remember me going for a run. I get quite a workout in our bedroom…that's more than enough."

"I didn't need to hear that," Santana said hugging her adoptive mother tightly, "Hey Momma Schue, surprise!"

"Hey," Emma said excited to see her, "why didn't you tell me you were coming home early?"

"That would have ruined the surprise," Santana answered and held Emma at arm's length, "wow you look gorgeous. Look at that cute little baby bump."

"Thank you," Emma said running a hand over her belly, "I…I just can't believe you're here. Wow. I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow. Your room isn't ready yet…I was going to fix it up tonight."

"I took care of it last night when I couldn't sleep," Will said, "she's all set."

"I can't believe the two of you cooked this whole thing up and I never had a clue," Emma said, "I guess pregnancy really does kill brain cells."

"Well, I knew that today was going to be a big day for you guys," Santana said with a laugh as they all sat down, "I wanted to be here. I had to make sure that I got the scoop before everyone else."

"Seeing as you're going to be the baby's godmother," Will said looking over at his wife who nodded in agreement, "I guess that makes total sense that you get to hear about it first."

"Wait, what," Santana said walking back over to her chair.

"We want you to be the baby's godmother," Emma said as Will pulled the chair out for her and helped her sit down…his need to protect his girls still on high alert, "Will, you can bring it down to about a four. I'm not broken…just pregnant."

"A little over protective, are we Will," Santana joked and then turned serious, "you're kidding about me being the baby's godmother, right?"

"Not at all," Emma said reaching for her hand, "we wanted to make you a permanent member of this family somehow."

"Oh my god," Santana said tearing up, "I don't know what to say."

"Say yes," Will teased, "and maybe we'll just tell you what the baby is."

"You found out," Santana said almost choking on her water, "I didn't think you would."

"He talked me into it," Emma said reaching under the table discreetly to rest her hand on Will's thigh.

"More like sexed you into it," Santana said, her way with words had not changed in the two years since her graduation. Both Will and Emma blushed a bit and then rolled their eyes at her comment.

"So what'll it be," Will said prying for an answer, "are you ready to have a godchild?"

"Oh, um," Santana answered, looking back and forth between Will and Emma, "I'd be honored…yes…of course."

"Good," Will and Emma said together sincerely, "thank you. That means so much to us."

"No, this means the world to me," Santana said, "I don't know how to thank you two…for…for all that you've done for me since…since…"

"Sweetie," Emma said reaching for her hand again, "you're a part of our family. You have been since the day you let me have it in my office. You told me off and then turned right around and took care of Will. You've been our biggest cheerleader…I mean aside from Grace…we're the ones that don't quite know how to thank you."

"You just did," Santana said misty-eyed. She reached to squeeze Will's hand too. "All right, all right…enough of this sappy stuff. I hate crying…you know that…even if it's happy tears."

"We know Santana," Will said as a waitress arrived to take their orders.

Will, Emma and Santana ordered fairly quickly and handed the menus back to the waitress with a word of thanks and then Santana quickly turned to topic of conversation back to the baby.

"So what kind of godchild am I having," she asked excitedly.

Will and Emma shared a happy look and Emma's hand immediately went to rest on her belly. Emma looked down and bit her lip before smiling and looking up again.

"She's kicking," Emma said looking at Santana.

"She," Santana said wide-eyed, "it's a girl…just like in your dreams?"

"It's a girl," Will said moving a hand to Emma's belly, "we're so excited. I can't believe that dream is coming true and that our first baby is a little girl."

"Congratulations," Santana said bouncing excitedly in her chair, "shopping is going to be so fun! Just think of all of the cute little girl stuff we can pick out."

"I smell a girl's day out," Will said, "you better include Quinn in that little outing or she'll have a fit."

"Not a problem. I talked to her yesterday and we've already got something in the works," Santana said clapping her hands quietly, "so do you guys have a name picked out? Please tell me that after everything, you're naming her after Grace?"

"We are," Emma said reaching for her purse and pulling out the ultrasound photos. She handed them over to Santana, "say hello to Avery Grace."

"Oh my god," Santana said looking at the photos, "this is really growing inside of you? This is crazy. You guys are having a baby."

"I know," Emma said, "it's the best strangest feeling I've ever felt. It's actually quite magical. I've got a part of Will right here with me and knowing that the love we share has created something so special…"

"It's exciting but overwhelming at the same time," Will said jumping back into the conversation, "I'm already acting like an idiot."

"You," Santana teased, "no way."

"I know," Will said absent mindedly reaching for Emma's purse. He dug through it to find her handy wipes and pulled out a packet of them. He then reached for her utensils and began to wipe them down without a word. Neither Emma nor Santana batted an eye at his actions but both silently admired his thoughtfulness at helping Emma with her OCD issues even though they are much more controlled and even considered to be minor now. "Just wait until the day she's born. I'm going to be a complete mess."

"You'll be fine," Santana said with a wink, "so how's summer vacation going? Have you guys had your usual lazy week?"

"Almost," Emma said watching Will finish wiping off her fork, "thank you honey. We didn't really get started with it until Monday. The weekend was a bit weird."

"How so," Santana said sitting back as the waitress arrived and placed her plate in front of her, "thanks."

"Well, Rachel showed up in my office Friday after school," Will said with a smile for his wife and ran his hand over the back of her head lovingly.

"Rachel…Rachel Berry," Santana said shocked.

"The one and only," Will said, "to say we were shocked would be an understatement."

"Oh my god," Santana said, "wow."

"I think Finn was even more shocked," Emma said placing her napkin on her lap, "I haven't seen him this confused since your senior year of high school. He's been working so hard at school and we're all just so proud of him. To have Rachel show up all of the sudden has really thrown him for a loop."

"They spent all of Friday night at our house," Will said, "we let them in and when Em started to get tired, they left but only got as far as the porch swing. I found them there Saturday morning when I stepped out to get the paper."

"What in the world did they want from you," Santana said.

"Advice," Emma answered, "on relationships. I guess they think we're the best couple for them to come to, we've had just about as many ups and downs as they have."

"So we've been telling them our story," Will said taking a bite of his meal, "starting from the day we all came back from Nationals in New York."

"Oh wow," Santana said, "and how's that going?"

"Um," Emma said picking at her salad, "it's been interesting and very emotional. If anything, though, I think I've fallen even more in love with my husband…if that's even possible…I'm already head over heels in love with him."

"Aww babe," Will said leaning over to kiss her, "same goes for me. I just worry though that with Em's hormones raging and emotions all over the place, certain aspects of the "story of us" might be a bit much for her. We told them that we'd talk in small doses throughout the summer. There's no way we're going to do it all at once and put Emma through all that."

"Are you going to tell them everything," Santana asked.

"No and neither are you," Will said, "you already know too much as it is."

"Yeah but I'm special," Santana teased.

"Yes, you are but please keep what you know just between us. I don't want all the details of our life together out in the open. It would be all over Lima before they even left the house," Will said, "and this town already knows more about us than they should."

"They don't know about our first trip to Florida," Emma said, "meeting Will's grandmother for the first time was so special to me and I'd like to keep the details of that private."

"That was an awesome trip," Will remembered, "we're going to go this summer too instead of going up to the lake like we planned. You know, honey, we should bring Santana with us this time. That way Doodlebug can come too and we can spend a week at the beach as family."

"Great idea," Emma said, "how about it, San…do you want to come with us?"

"A trip to Florida…to stay at a house right on the beach…gee..can I think about it," Santana teased, "that'd be great. I'd love to see Grace too."

"Awesome," Will said smiling. "It will make for a long road trip but with two maybe three people driving it might not be so bad."

"What do you mean maybe three people driving," Emma said sitting her fork down, "I know you're talking about me and I can certainly drive a car, husband. I'm having a baby, that's not a big deal."

"You're having my baby," he said gently leaning over to rest his forehead against hers, "that makes it a big deal."

"Oh my god," Santana said, "if you two are going to act like this the whole time, maybe I'll just stay home. Wait but that would mean I'd be missing out on a trip to the beach, I guess I can turn a blind eye."

"Settle down Santana," Will said with a sigh, "you know we can tone it down. We just don't want to most of the time. Gram will be excited to see you too. She's in for a super surprise. We're not going to tell her we're coming…just like we didn't the first time."


	21. Chapter 21

**_**Author's Note…please forgive me for the lack of updates…I suffered from a bit of a writer's block but I think I've gotten it back and am super excited for this story to continue. I hope you like the characters I've created for this chapter and that will continue throughout the story…however long it may be. Your opinion means a lot to me so I'm begging you to please take a second and leave a review! Enjoy_****_J _**

After several hours in airplanes and airports, Will and Emma finally touched down in sunny Tampa. They grabbed their luggage in record time, quickly picked up their rental car and headed toward St. Petersburg. Will smiled at Emma's excitement as they drove through the busy city. This was her first trip to this part of Florida and she was so excited to be sharing this experience with Will.

Forgoing their original plans to head straight to his grandmother's retirement home, they opted to head to the beach house instead to drop off their bags and freshen up a bit. Will had yet to go into very many details about the house and Emma was expecting to find a small little cottage type place set back quite a bit from the ocean itself. She was stunned to find a large, elegant townhome when Will finally pulled into a driveway.

"Oh my god," Emma said, "is this it?"

"This is it," Will said excitedly.

"It's gorgeous."

"Come on," he said, "let's drop off our bags and go get Gram. I'll give you the fifty cent tour now and the grand tour when we get back."

"What's the fifty cent tour," she asked as the gathered up all of their belongings.

"Our bedroom, our bathroom and most importantly," he said, "our balcony."

"Wow," she said following him to the front door, "is your grandmother going to be okay with us sharing a room?"

"Absolutely," Will said fishing out his keys and opening the door, "I think she'd have a problem if we didn't. After you…just start climbing the stairs and keep going until you can't climb them anymore."

Emma gave Will a confused look and he gently nudged her to start climbing. He knew she would fall in love with the room the second she saw it. He stayed a step behind just so that he could hear her reaction. Her breathless, "Oh Will", said it all. He dropped their bags the second he stepped in the room and gathered her in his arms and kissed her silly.

"There's plenty more where that came from but can we please go get my Gram," he asked when they came up for air.

"Of course sunshine," she replied, "just give me a minute to touch up my makeup and we can go."

In record time, Emma freshened up and grabbed her purse and Will's hand. Together they headed down the stairs and back to the car. Driving back over the bridge, they maintained a course along the water as they headed toward the retirement community that Grace Schuester called home. The closer they got to their destination, butterflies began to swirl in Emma's stomach and her subtle fidgeting did not go unnoticed by Will. He simply took her hand in his and hoped that for the moment, it was enough to provide some comfort.

Will, on the other hand, was bursting with excitement to see his beloved grandmother and more importantly, to introduce her to the love of his life…finally. Pulling into the parking and finding a space proved to be a bit tougher than anticipated and then Will remembered that with the impending holiday…things were always a bit more crowded in Florida. He put the car in park and hopped out quickly, making his way to the passenger side. He opened the door and extended his hand for Emma's to take as she stepped out of the car.

"Ready," he asked excitedly kissing her forehead.

"I'm a little nervous," she replied taking a deep breath, the butterflies still fluttering away in her stomach.

"Hey," he said gently stroking her hair back behind her ear, "don't be. Gram has to be the coolest person I know. She's known about you for nearly three years and every time I talk to her, she asks me when I'm going to bring you down so she can meet you. Even when I thought I'd never be able to, she still asked. She's going to be so excited and I promise, she's not going to judge or criticize. She might ask if you'll help her cheat at poker but that'll be it."

"She really does sound like Sophia from the Golden Girls," Emma said with a giggle and reached up to straighten the collar on her sunshine's shirt.

"It's going to be great! You'll see," Will said kissing her quickly and then pulling her towards the entrance, "Come on! I can't wait to surprise her."

Emma was quite impressed that Will knew the blue prints of this place as well as he knew the halls of McKinley. Through their joined hands, she could feel his excitement to see his grandmother. That feeling confirmed what she already knew, Grace Schuester was a huge influence on Will and their bond was very special...much like the one she had with her own grandmother. Emma just hoped she lived up to Grace's expectations. She couldn't handle disappointing or hurting another member of the Schuester family, doing that to Will was already inexcusable.

"Stop worrying," he whispered as they approached the door, "everything is going to be fine."

"I can't help it," she said quietly, "I'm a worrier."

"Jellybean," Will said with a grin, his newly discovered pet name for her sounded wonderful. He pulled her off to the side gently and sat her down on a bench before kneeling before her and continuing, "I know you're a worrier. It's one of the things I love about you but this is one time where you really don't need to. If Gram were some crazy dragon lady then by all means…I'd want you to worry but she's not. I promise, this is going to be great and I'll be watching from the wings with my 'I told you so' just sitting on the tip of my tongue."

"I just don't want to disappoint her," Emma sighed.

"Disappoint her? Oh Em," Will said sympathetically, "she's going to be thrilled when she sees you. She's wanted to meet you for such a long time. She's going to love you…not as much as I do but still."

"I love you too," she whispered and leaned down to kiss him.

Will continued to stoop before her for a few minutes, allowing her the chance to collect herself before heading inside to seek out his grandmother. Their joined hands rested on her knees and he let his fingers lightly stroke her skin…not caring at all who might be watching out the door. As many times as he had been to this senior living community, he knew that somebody or somebodies would be watching them.

"Okay," Emma said taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, "I think I'm ready."

"Yeah," he asked with a smile. When she nodded, he pulled her up and into his arms. He held her there for a few more minutes not only because he wanted to comfort her but because he could hold her now, whenever he wanted to and he wanted to. "Babe, just so you know, there's an old geezer named Ben that's been watching us through the door."

"What," Emma said lifting her head from his chest.

"He's harmless but nosy," Will said rubbing her arms and then finally taking her hand. He laughed when he saw Ben run away from the door in a panic having been caught. "Look at that. He knows he's been caught. Watch him pretend to be the door greeter when we walk in."

Will opened the door, allowing Emma to enter first but he never let go of her hand. He smiled at the elderly man standing off to the side pretending to be busy straightening up several magazines that were scattered around.

"Hi Ben," Will said to the man, "how's it going?"

"Good afternoon and welcome to…," Ben said looking up nervously from the magazines. He knew he had been caught snooping, "well if it isn't Will Schuester. What in the world are you doing here?"

"Came to surprise Gram, soak up some sun on the beach," Will said sharing a smile with Emma and still holding her hand, "and I want her to meet somebody."

"Meet somebody," Ben said looking over at the beautiful red head hanging onto Will's arm, "is this…Emma?"

"This is Emma," Will said with a smile that reached from ear to ear.

"Nice to meet you," Emma said quietly but with a smile on her face.

"Emma, _**the**_ Emma," Ben asked, eyes widening.

"The one and only," Will said proudly.

"Oh my goodness," the elderly gentleman said lovingly, "young lady, we've been waiting for quite some time for you to walk through the door on Will's arm."

Emma blushed and leaned into Will a little bit more than she already was. "It took me a bit but here I am," she said smiling up at Will, "and I'm here to stay."

"I'm glad and so happy for the both of you," Ben said, "Can I give you a bit of advice?"

"Sure," Will said winking at Emma.

"Never go to bed angry or think that your feelings aren't important," Ben said patting them both on their arms, "don't be afraid to speak your mind and be honest with each other. Oh and Will, she's always right."

"Good advice Ben," Will said, "we'll be sure to remember that."

"So what brings you to St. Pete," Ben asked trying to make small talk, already forgetting that he had asked and received an answer to that question.

"We wanted to get away from Lima for a bit and decided that this was the perfect place," Will said, "lots to do, the beautiful beach and of course…my Gram."

"Oh yes, Grace…speaking of…you better cut the chit chat with me and go find her," Ben said, "last I heard, she was in the common room but you know Grace...she can't sit still or stay in one place very long. Thank god your granddad never let her get her driver's license."

"Thanks," Will said smiling at his jellybean.

"It was nice to meet you," Emma said to Ben as she passed him.

"Likewise," Ben said with a wink, "and about damn time too."

"Will, how does he know who I am," Emma asked as they walked down the hall.

"Oh, um, he's sort of Gram's boyfriend," Will said, "but don't you ever tell my father that, he'll have a coronary. He's even more protective of Gram than I am."

"Your grandmother has a boyfriend," Emma asked with a tone of surprise in her voice.

"Sort of," Will said pointing to the corridor they were about to walk down, "Ben still has his driver's license and they are the buffet king and queen of this place. They love going out to eat and really seem to enjoy each other's company."

"It's cute," Emma said.

"You think that now," Will teased, "just you wait though; I guarantee that he'll want us all to go out to dinner before we leave and then you might change your mind on the cute thing."

The couple made their way down the hall and walked into the common room. They found his grandmother sitting at a table with several other people and a deck of cards. He walked up behind her with a smile on his face but brought his finger to his lips so the other residents wouldn't ruin the surprise. Emma took a step back to watch Will interact with his Gram for the first time.

"Hey pretty lady," he said resting his hands on her shoulders and chin on the top of her head, "you better not be cheating."

"Cheating. I don't know what you're talking about. I never…" she said absent mindedly before realizing her grandson was standing behind her and tilted her head back to meet his hazel eyes, "Will? What on earth are you doing here?"

"Hi," he said pulling her chair out for her so she could stand and hug her, "surprise!"

"Oh my goodness," she said pulling him into her arms, "it most certainly is!"

"How are you," he said, "ya look great!"

"Much better now that you're here. This was getting pretty boring," she said turning to her friends, "I fold. My grandson is more important than a deck of cards. Same time tomorrow?"

Grace Schuester's friends all smiled and waved at Will and began to whisper amongst themselves about the red head standing behind him and Grace's failure to notice her just yet.

"So, what's new with you? I want all the details about your trip to New York. You didn't say too much when we talked last," Grace said turning and taking her grandson's arm.

Will was already gazing lovingly at Emma just waiting for his Gram to take notice she was standing there. They got two or three steps away from the table before Grace looked up and saw the beautiful red head standing before her. "Oh my god...is this...is this Emma?"

Emma stood there quietly, biting her lower lip not sure if she should say something or if Will was going to. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the Schuester matriarch's eyes light up at the mere sight of her. Emma looked over at Will and saw the tears pool in his eyes. She knew that he had been waiting for this moment for quite some time.

"Gram," he said clearing his throat and sharing a loving smile with Emma, "this is Emma."

"And are you...," Grace asked hesitantly.

"We are," he said reaching for Emma but not letting go of his Gram, "and there's a 50/50 chance now that when you call the apartment, she'll answer."

"Oh...oh," Grace said with a nudge and a grin for her grandson.

"Get your mind out of the gutter old lady," Will teased giving her a wink and a squeeze.

"Well don't just stand there, William," Grace said laughing with her grandson, "aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Em...this is my Gram...Grace Schuester," he said as she walked to him and leaned up against him, "Gram...you obviously know who this is."

"Hi there," Grace said reaching to hug Emma, "you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment."

"Will's told me so much about you," Emma said accepting her hug and not fighting the lone tear of joy that trickled down her cheek, "I got a little lost along the way but I'm so glad to finally be here."

"Me too," Grace said stepping back and held her at arm's length, "you're even more beautiful in person. Will, you didn't tell me she was so tiny though."

"I guess I never paid too much attention to the height difference," Will said blushing and looking down at his feet.

"No...you're too lost in her eyes," Grace said picking up on the fact that her friends were sitting there snickering behind her back, "and that's a good thing. We'd better get out of here...these old geezers have probably turned their hearing aids on high so they can hear us. The whole place will know you're here in a matter of minutes."

"I'm sure they already do," Will said squeezing his grandmothers hand, "your boy toy was pretending to be the greeter when we walked in."

"Oh dear god," Grace said waving her hand in the air, "I'll deal with him later."

"Do you think they'd let me bail ya out of here for a couple of days so you can stay at the house with us," Will asked as they made their way out of the common room and into the corridor. He felt so proud to have his grandmother hanging on to one arm and the love of his life holding his hand. Emma could sense his joy and leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked.

"Oh I can't imagine it being a problem," Grace said, "Helen from next door went to Disney World with her grandkids today. We'd just be going across the bridge."

"I'll go ask real quick," Will said as they approached Grace's room, "it'll give you ladies a chance to get acquainted and talk about me for a bit."

Will winked at his grandmother and kissed Emma's head as he walked to the offices.

"Well Miss Emma," Grace said taking her hand and pulling her into her room, "come on in. This has to be the best surprise I've gotten in a while."

"I'm glad," Emma said quietly following her into the room which was much larger than she anticipated and very homey, "This is lovely."

"Will helped me decorate," she said sitting down in her recliner, "he's really good at that."

"I know. We've had so much fun fixing up the apartment with all of our things," Emma said sitting down in the chair next to her, "he talks about you all the time."

"He talks about _you_all the time," Grace said, "he loves you so much that you could ask him a million questions about himself and he find a way incorporate you in the answer."

"Mrs. Schuester," Emma started to say.

"Please," Grace said holding up her hand and shaking her head, "it's Grace. Mrs. Schuester was my mother in law and I couldn't stand the woman."

"Grace," Emma said with a giggle, already liking this woman very much, "I...um...don't quite know what all Will has told you but..."

"Everything," Grace said, "he's told me everything. From the time he put chalk on your nose to the sports car to the dentist to the sweater vest...that however is the last thing he told me. I'm assuming things changed shortly after that?"

"Yes," Emma said looking down at her hands, "I want you to know that I never wanted to hurt him. I was just so scared of so many things that I messed up...big time."

"Sometimes we have to mess up and come pretty damn close to completely losing it to realize what it is we really want," Grace said reaching over to pat Emma's arm, "Will made mistakes too but you found your way back to each other and that's what really matters."

"He tried so hard," Emma said shaking her head, "he never gave up on me or us."

"Will has never been one to give up on something he's so passionate about," Grace said, "he might make a few wrong turns every once in a while but it doesn't take much to get him back on track. I mean the last thing I heard from him was he was going to take a crack at Broadway and now he's here introducing you to me. So clearly his passion is and always will be you."

"He just told me he came here for Christmas break," Emma said changing the subject a bit to avoid the tears that she certain would eventually fall anyway.

"Let me tell you about that," Grace said, "the boy was here for four whole days before I even knew it. When he finally did come and see me...he was a mess. He looked like he hadn't slept in ages. I think it's safe to say he looked like death. There for a minute I thought he might stay here for good but he said he needed to be in Lima just in case you needed him. He held on for a year Emma. If that's not love, I don't know what is."

"I did need him," Emma said looking down at her hands, "but up until recently, I didn't tell him that. My grandmother, who knew just about as much about Will as you do about me, died in early December. I didn't tell Will...I should have but I didn't. If I had told him he would have done everything in his power to take care of me but..."

"The dentist," Grace said gently.

"He was never very fond of Will. He knew how Will felt about me and about our history. They couldn't be in a room together without something being said. I didn't think I could have handled an argument between the two of them at a time like that and so I didn't say anything," Emma said tearing up, "but it was Will I wanted...it was Will I needed."

"Well honey, you've got him. You've got all of him," Grace said, "and as much crap as you two put each other through this past year, you never stopped loving each other."

"I know," Emma said with a sniffle, "he told me just before we left this morning that as miserable and unhappy as he was, had he known about my grandmother he never would have come here for Christmas. He would have stayed close just in case…"

"That's my grandson," Grace said proudly, "I have to tell you Emma, in the few short minutes I've seen him, before he abandoned us to post my bail, he's the happiest I've seen him in quite some time. He's back to being the Will he was before Terri drained the life out of him. There have been glimmers of the old Will in the last few years and they've always been associated with you. I can't thank you enough for that. That's also when I knew you were the one for him and I think that's when he realized it too."

"I love him so much," Emma said quietly.

"I know you do and I know that the feeling is quite mutual," Grace said, "you do know that he can be pretty stubborn, right?"

"Yes," Emma said with a giggle, "and we've talked about having ups and downs and getting into arguments."

"Have you talked about his dreams," Grace asked, "and I don't mean his goals, I mean the dreams he had at night, while he was sleeping? The dreams he did everything under the sun to stay awake at night to avoid because they were too real and as much as loved them, hurt too much?"

"He isn't the only one who dreamt about us or tried to avoid dreaming about us," Emma said looking down at her hands, "and yes, we've shared a few of them. We talked about starting a notebook to write them all down in and cross them off as we accomplish them. The idea kind of spiraled off of the journal I started to keep a while back."

"You know," Grace said, "that might not be a bad idea."

"What," Emma asked.

"Keeping a joint journal," Grace said, "it'd be a great way for you two to share your dreams and your feelings. You could keep it in a night stand or something and just pass it back and forth between you whenever you see fit."

"Hmmm," Emma said with a smile, "I like that idea."

"Talk it over with Will. I'm pretty sure he'll take to the idea too," Grace said with a wink, "so…have you guys been to the house?"

"We have," Emma said, "we went there first so we could drop off our luggage and freshen up. It's gorgeous."

"It will be yours and Will's one day," Grace said, "you know, when I kick the bucket."

"Gram, how many times do I have to tell you not to talk like that," Will said walking into the room.

"I'm old Will," she said, "my bucket is rusting."

"We'll get you a new one," he said kissing her cheek and then moving over to the chair Emma was sitting in. He gently pulled her out of the chair and sat down in her place before pulling her back into his lap, "so which one of my horrible childhood stories did you tell Emma about?"

"She didn't," Emma said wrapping her arm around Will's shoulders, "but we just got here."

"Yeah, there's plenty of time for me to tell her some good ones," Grace said, "so did the warden accept the bail?"

"Yep," Will answered cuddling with Emma, "as soon as you can get some stuff together for a few days, we can head on out. I talked to Ben on the way back. We've got a double date planned on Wednesday. He said something about it being a BOGO night at this one restaurant. Is that okay with you two?"

"Sounds wonderful," Emma said kissing his forehead and then whispered in his ear, "what's a BOGO?"

"Buy one get one," Will whispered back as his grandmother got up from her chair and walked over to her closet, "I think."

"That's exactly what it is, sunshine," Grace said pulling out a small suitcase, "Ben knows where all the good meal deals are."

"I know but he better not be taking us to that place attached to the bowling alley," Will said, "that place is really gross and I don't want to take Emma there."

"I'll make sure it isn't," Grace said winking at Emma. Will informed her years ago of Emma's issue with things having to be really clean. "Speaking of…was the house okay? It wasn't too dusty was it? I wasn't expecting you so I didn't call the cleaning service to come spruce it up."

"It's fine Gram," Will said, "I didn't trash the place too bad when I was here at Christmas."

"I wasn't talking to you," Grace teased, "Emma, is there anything that needs to be done? I can get someone over there in a jiffy."

"No, it's just fine," Emma said, "thank you. I can't wait to get the full tour when we get back."

"You didn't take her on a tour…Will," Grace said, "what's wrong with you?"

"We were in a hurry to get here," he said looking over at his grandmother who was standing there staring at him with her hands on her hips, "are you gonna pack or what? We've been travelling all day and I want to get back to house and kick my feet up."

"I'm packing…I'm packing," Grace said moving about her living space. She tried to make small talk with Will and Emma but it was clear they were lost in their own little world, making plans for the days to come. Rather than interrupt them, she continued about her business and finished rather quickly. Turning to inform them she was ready to go, she found them locked in an embrace sharing the first of many kisses they would share in not only her presence but throughout their vacation and for many years to come.

"Okay you two," Grace said finally interrupting them, "the way I see it, you've got two choices. We can stay here and you can have every eye in this place watching you make out like a couple of teenagers from that high school of yours or we can get out of here and you can make out in a house where an entire floor will separate you from the other person in the place. It's up entirely up to you."


	22. Chapter 22

_****Author's Note: Jumping back to the present and enter Quinn…a bit of drabble to set up the next chapter which will take us back to pre-season 3 and in Florida with my OC Grace. Please, please, please take the time to review. You have no idea how much it motivates me to keep writing**___

Having not slept a wink the night before, Will crashed the moment the trio arrived home from lunch. As much as he wanted to run right out with his wife and shop for their baby girl, he could barely keep his eyes open and regrettably begged to postpone their shopping trip. He made Emma promise that they would go on a shopping spree of their own before Emma organized a girl's day on the town with Santana and Quinn. To his surprise she happily agreed but that didn't stop her from calling Quinn on their way home and inviting her over for the afternoon.

A light tapping at the door as to not wake a sleeping Will, signaled Quinn's arrival and both Emma and Santana were excited to see their friend who had incredibly matured from the conceited Cheerio they had first met. Along with Santana, despite maintaining her gift for words and sarcasm, Quinn had evolved into a caring, compassionate and sophisticated young woman and both of the Schuester's were quite proud of their former students.

"Quinn," Emma said excitedly when she opened the front door to find the blonde standing on the other side, "it's so good to see you! Welcome home!"

"Hi," Quinn said with a huge smile on her face. She walked in the door and enveloped Emma into a big hug, making sure comment on her growing monkey bump, "oh my goodness! You've really grown since the last time I was home. You look great! How do you feel?"

"Thank you," Emma said sincerely, running her hands over her expanding waist line, "I've been feeling really good here lately. Thank you for the shipment of lollipops by the way. They really did help with the morning sickness."

"I told you," Quinn said slipping off her shoes by the door and dropping her purse on the entry table. "the real question is how many did you actually get to eat and how many did Will steal?"

"I kept them locked up in my desk at work," Emma said as they walked into the living room, "so his thievery was kept to a minimum."

"That's a shocker," Quinn said walking up to a smiling Santana and hugging her, "Hey San! How are you?"

"I'm great! Happy to be home that's for sure," Santana said returning to her seat on the floor in front of the coffee table. "How are you?"

"Happy to be home and even happier now that finals are over," Quinn said joining her on the floor.

"No kidding," Santana agreed, "mine were brutal this time."

"Well I'm glad you're both home," Emma said easing herself onto to the couch. She propped herself up on its arm and brought her feet up beside her, "it's going to be so nice to have some girl time. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband but still…I've needed some girl time."

"Don't worry! Santana and I are already hard at work planning our girl's day out! Where is Will," Quinn asked, "I'm surprised he's not suction cupped to your cheek."

"You said it," Santana said playfully, "he was all over her at lunch."

"My handsome and constant companion is snoozing upstairs with our dog," Emma said shaking her head with laughter, "he didn't sleep a wink last night and was so hyped up about our ultrasound this morning that he came crashing down after lunch."

"And hit hard," Santana added dumping the contents of her purse onto the coffee table.

"He'll be out for a while," Emma said with a laugh.

"He's just excited," Quinn said watching Santana rifle through her things on the table, "this time it's real and he's having a baby with you, Emma. He's wanted this for so long and if it's a girl, he's going to be even more excited."

"It is a girl," Emma said placing a hand on her belly, "we found out this morning."

"Oh my god, really," Quinn said excitedly.

"And she's so cute…you know, for a sea monkey," Santana said picking up the ultrasound photo Emma had given her and showing it to Quinn, "lookit."

"Awww. Well if that doesn't it make it real, I don't know what will," Quinn said, "maybe when she kicks."

"I know," Emma said excitedly, "Will's is over the moon. He's been this way since we found out we were pregnant."

"I've never told anyone this before but," Quinn said, "he told me back when I was…you know…that being a daddy was something that he always dreamed of but he also said something that day that I knew was going to a big game changer."

"What did he say," Emma asked curiously.

"I don't remember the whole conversation. I think we were talking about the Glee Club and the amount of time he'd be able to spend with us once the baby was born. He started to say," Quinn said looking at Emma, "'when Emma has our baby.' He never once said Terri's name the whole time we were talking and now looking back, I think a part of him really wanted to believe that it was you."

"He wanted it to be," Emma whispered, "in fact he told me the day he came back from New York with you guys that he wanted it to be me, he dreamt that it was me."

"Well it is you," Santana said with a knowing wink to her adopted mother. She could sense that this particular brick on Will and Emma's Yellow Brick Road was a sensitive one and it was best to not keep stepping on it, "and we all finally get a baby out of the deal."

"I guess that means we've already been recruited to help with the nursery," Quinn teased, "and babysit occasionally."

"You guess right," Emma said pointing upstairs, "we know what we're going to do with her room, the theme and all that but we still have to pick out the paint and go furniture shopping. We're going to put her name on the wall over her crib. I can't wait to get started on decorating that."

"You have a name picked out already," Quinn asked excitedly.

"Well, based on what you just told me," Emma said, "I think her name has been decided for quite some time. Will is just very lucky that I'm in love with it too."

"Oh just tell her what it is," Santana laughed, "it's beautiful."

"Her name is Avery Grace," Emma said cradling her baby bump.

"Avery Grace? That's really pretty," Quinn said, "have you told Grace yet?"

"She absolutely knows about the baby but aside from you two," Emma said, "we haven't told anyone it's a girl yet. I mean we just found out ourselves a few hours ago. We're going to tell her in a few weeks though. We're going to head down to St. Pete after the 4th and surprise her."

"So you're still planning on having the Fourth of July party," Quinn asked and when Emma nodded, "cool. I can't wait for everyone to get together."

"Speaking of everyone," Emma said silently giving thanks for Quinn having brought up the subject because she wasn't quite sure how to, "I'm sure you've heard that we've had a special guest stop by the house a few times."

"Oh that's right," Quinn answered, "Will texted me that Rachel was back in town. How is she?"

"More interested in hearing the story of us than talking about herself," Emma said, "not that we mind talking about our relationship but it certainly wasn't what we had in mind to kick off our summer."

"It seems Glinda is still hot for Gigantor," Santana quipped finally finding the football tickets she had tossed in her purse before she left Louisville, "these are going to Burt, right?"

"Yeah, I'm keeping Will close to home this fall," Emma said. She made a mental note to herself to ask Santana if she had any competitions or scrimmages in late August or early September that they could attend to support their adopted daughter as she cheered on the Cardinals, "Quinn, we haven't seen Rachel since you guys graduated. She's not kept in touch with Will at all so we really don't know how she is or even who she is anymore. She seems so lost and confused. I hope being home this summer will help her to find herself again."

"So what does the Schuester story have to do with Rachel finding herself," Quinn asked.

"Finn," Santana said simply. Over lunch, Will and Emma went into more detail about the happenings of the first few days of summer vacation, "all roads lead back to Finn."

"I think that's a huge part of it," Emma said jumping slight and rubbing her belly having received a swift kick from her baby, "goodness Avery, are we going to have to wake up your Daddy to sing you a lullaby?"

"Does that actually work," Santana asked redirecting the topic of conversation back to Emma, Will and their baby. She was still a bit hesitant about the whole Rachel situation, namely because she now knew that Rachel was completely unaware of the happenings with her family the summer after graduation.

"You know, I don't know if it works for the baby or not," Emma said moving her hand to the side of her belly, "I'm the one that's usually asleep before he gets to the chorus."

"Get all the sleep you can now," Quinn said with a wink and a smile. She spent four years seeking advice from Emma and it amused her a bit that the tables were now turned. "Come October, sleep is going to be hard to come by. You are going to be so uncomfortable and there's going to be very little Will can do to fix that."

"That's not going to stop him from trying though," Emma said looking towards the ceiling when she heard movement coming from above, "uh-oh."

"I thought he'd be dead to the world up there," Santana said, "he's been up since four this morning."

"Is that when you got home," Quinn asked.

"Yeah."

"He was up and down all night before that though," Emma said, "he wanted to call the doctor first thing this morning to see if we could get in any earlier then 10. He might be at the stage where he's so tired he can't sleep."

"Or he can't sleep without you up there with him," Santana said watching Will make his way downstairs, blanket and pillow in tow and a dog on his heels.

"Hi honey," Emma said with a smile, "what's wrong? Can't sleep?"

"Not without you beside me," he mumbled dropping his pillow against her legs. He handed her their journal before lying down against bringing his blanket up and over his head. Doodlebug jumped up right beside Will and curled up in the crook of his legs.

"Well go right ahead and make yourselves comfortable," she teased.

"Okay, we will," he mumbled from underneath the blanket. He rested one hand under his cheek and the other on his wife's leg. He smiled when he felt her rearrange the blanket and begin to run her hand up and down his back,

"Babe…Quinn's here," Emma said gently.

"Hi Quinn," Will mumbled, "good night, Quinn."

"Good night Will," Quinn said shaking her head with laughter, "at least he's sleeping. Remember that stretch between sectionals and regionals our junior year where he didn't sleep a wink?"

"He wasn't the only one," Emma said smiling when she felt his hand move from her leg to her belly. She looked over and shared a knowing look with Santana, "that was a hard year for both of us. It took a while but we worked it out."

"Thank god," Will mumbled. Emma smiled at his mumbling and slipped her hand into his shirt so that she could lightly scratch his back, hoping that would help him fall asleep.

"If I had half a mind back then," Quinn said, "I would have marched right into your office after sectionals and let you have it for running off with the dentist."

"You and just about every member of New Directions," Emma said looking at Santana. The secret of Santana's outburst and suspension would continue to remain just between the Schuester's and the cheerleader. "I'm the first to admit I would have deserved it too but look where we are now. It's a distant memory, a painful one but just a memory. Will knows that I can't undo what I did back then but he has more than let me make up for it."

"I love how we all refer to him as 'the dentist'," Santana said playfully, "I mean I've even heard Grace call him that."

"She did the day I met her too," Emma said, "it's funny that Will is the only who can actually say his name, not that we talk about him a lot but with this little journey back in time we seem to be on, he's come up a few times."

"He's a part of your past," Quinn shrugged, "if I've learned anything in the psychology class I took this semester, you can't talk about the future without discussing the past."

"Very insightful, Dr. Fabray," Emma said with a wink. Quinn had called her earlier in the school year to inform her that after a lot of soul searching, she had decided to focus her studies on becoming a high school guidance counselor. Emma was proud, honored and beyond thrilled that she had managed to inspire one of her students to follow in her footsteps.

"So, I have to ask," Quinn said pointing to the leather bound book Emma was drumming her fingers on, "what's that?"

"Oh, um," Emma said as Will cuddled even closer in his sleep, "it's our journal."

"'Our' journal," Quinn questioned looking over at Santana who simply shrugged. Santana knew about the journal but had never seen nor had she asked to, that was something private between Will and Emma and she was going to let it stay that way.

"Yeah," Emma said, "we've been writing back and forth in one since we first got together. It kind of lets us say things to each other that we have difficulty saying out loud or we leave each other silly little love notes. It's incredibly personal and private and I think it's best if I leave it at that."

"You know Momma Schue," Santana said, "it might not be a bad idea for you to suggest something like to Finn and Rachel. If they're having trouble talking to each other, maybe they could try writing."

"Yeah," Quinn said agreeing with Santana, "I mean I don't exactly know what's going on between those two but I do know that Rachel is one hell of a writer. If she can churn out a song like 'Get it Right' then she can certainly find the words to express her feelings. Finn's not so bad at it either."

"See this is why I am so glad to have such an awesome support system right now," Emma joked, "ordinarily that would be an idea that would I suggest to you guys in one of my pamphlets but Little Miss Avery has preoccupied my mind."

"Hah," Will mumbled from under the blanket and poked her side.

Emma furrowed her eyebrows and looked down to what she thought was a sleeping lump of a husband underneath a blanket. Shaking her head, she thought to herself she should have known better that he would fake the whole thing and for two reasons…he was so tired that he was beyond the point of sleep and he just wanted to cuddle.

"What do you mean, hah," Emma said removing her hand from the smooth skin of his back and pulling the blanket back revealing his grinning face.

"Why don't you tell them who suggested the idea to you?"


	23. Chapter 23

_****Author's Notes: Hi Everyone! Sorry for the delay...it's taken me a while to get these next two chapters just right! I hope you enjoy them. We're back to the past in this one and in the present for the following. Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews...you have no idea how much they mean to a writer. If you take the time to read a story...please review it. Writer's love feedback and it really encourages them to continue:) I hope you all enjoy this next installment of "Starting From the Beginning"!**_

After spending most of the day running around St. Petersburg, Will, Emma and his grandmother enjoyed a leisurely dinner at one of the area's best waterfront restaurants. Too tired to put his culinary skills to work that evening, Will was grateful for the chance to just sit back and let someone else serve him for a change. Lots of laughs and stories of Will's childhood were shared over a few glasses of wine. On more than one occasion, Grace had shared a story that turned Will's face redder than the fake flowers on the table.

Emma sat beside him quietly often resting her hand casually on his arm, a smile never leaving her face. Listening intently as his grandmother chattered away, she didn't think she could love him anymore than she already did but loved the fact that she was falling in love with completely different side of Will. Emma quickly found herself wishing that she had been the one that was by his side during high school instead of Terri.

When Grace excused herself to go to the ladies room, Will quickly turned to Emma with a bright crimson blush still on his face. "I'm begging you," he said, "forget everything she just said."

"Not likely," she said with a smile and leaned over to kiss his cheek, "you know, I'd love to get out of here and take a walk on the beach with you. We got here this morning, are staying in a beautiful house on the beach and yet we haven't even stepped foot on it."

"I'm waiting until sunset to take you on that walk," he said leaning forward to rest his forehead on hers, "it's more peaceful and I'm going to take you to my favorite spot and once we get there…I'm going to kiss you silly."

"You've already done that," she said with a smile, "many times."

"Not on the beach at sunset," he said bringing his hands to her face and kissing her. If this kiss was a preview of what was yet to come, Emma hoped that Will was prepared to hold her up because she knew she was sure to go completely weak in the knees.

Grace walked back up to them as they were in the midst of their kiss and took a quick survey of their surroundings to find several people staring at her grandson and his girlfriend. She smiled and thanked the heavens that things had finally worked out and brought her grandson to this happy place. He had given so much of himself to so many people for so long without anything in return and finally…he was loved like he should be loved and beginning the life he so deserved.

"Okay folks," Grace said jokingly to the other restaurant guests, "bet ya didn't know that you'd get a glimpse of true love and happily ever after when you came in for dinner tonight. Well here it is so take it all in and remember what you've got sitting across the table from you and turn your attention back to them."

"_Gram_," Will said pulling away from Emma and once again turning a shade of red that would make one think he had spent too much time in the sun. Emma buried her face in Will's neck, trying to hide her embarrassment and the giggle fit that Grace's performance had sent her in to.

"What," she said with a shrug and sat back down, "I meant that. The love you two share is just radiating off of you. Sometimes couples forget they have that kind of love and need to be reminded of what's in front of them. And sometimes seeing that love being shared by another couple is just the reminder that they need."

"She's very insightful Will," Emma said resting her head on his shoulder as the waiter walked up with the bill. Will batted his grandmother's hand away when she tried to pay the bill and reached for Emma's purse where he had stashed his wallet. He wasn't sure why he had done that in the first place and certainly had no idea that it would become a regular occurrence for years to come.

"Yeah but she is the master at making her grandson turn a shade of red that no one has ever seen before," he said pulling his credit card out of his wallet and tucking into the folder with their dinner bill.

"You look good in red," she teased as she watched him hand the small black folder over to the waiter.

"I never make apologies for myself, Will, you know that," Grace joked.

"I know," he said resting his head against Emma's, "so are we about ready to head back to the house?"

"Could we stop at the bookstore around the corner," Grace asked, "I'd like to pick up a couple of beach reading books."

"Sure thing," Will said, "is that okay with you, jellybean?"

"Mmhmm," Emma answered, "I finished my book on the plane."

"Then we'll head back and take that walk on the beach," he whispered in her ear. Emma smiled and threaded her fingers through his, determined not to let him go…ever.

Once the bill was paid, the trio gathered their belongings and headed to the bookstore. They quietly went their separate ways in order to find reading material that suited their tastes. After finding a couple of books that she would have no trouble getting lost in, Emma found herself making a stop at the journals. Her thoughts travelled back to the conversation she had with Grace earlier in the day and decided that her suggestion of a joint journal might just be a good one and was worth trying. Her eyes immediately settled on a periwinkle one that just screamed Will and Emma. She picked it up and added it to her selections. Rather than wait for Will who she knew would insist on paying for the both of them, she went right to the register so the journal would remain a surprise and then waited patiently for her sunshine and his grandmother to make their way back to the front of the store.

Will was quick purchase his own reading material and make his way back to his lady love. He felt a bit silly but he hated that they went their separate ways at the bookstore. He knew that couples often went their own ways while shopping but as of yet it hadn't happened and he had become used to searching for things together.

"I missed you," he whispered when he finally joined her at the front of the store.

"You're sweet sunshine," Emma said kissing his cheek.

"I know," he said with a wink, threading his fingers through hers. "Gram better hurry up. We've got a date with the sunset."

"We've got time," she said leaning into him. She smiled when she spotted Grace, arms loaded with a couple of books and what appeared to be gossip magazines, heading the check out. "See, she's checking out now. I'm sure she's just as anxious to get back to the house as we are."

"Would you believe it only took her ten minutes to actually pick out her books and magazines," he asked, "I timed her. She spent the rest of the time walking around the store to see if you knew anyone so she could brag about us."

"Seriously," Emma asked with a laugh as Grace finally approached.

"I'm well known around town," Grace said winking at the couple, not actually hearing their conversation but knowing exactly what they were talking about.

"Is that so," Emma giggled.

"Come on ladies," Will said shaking his head and offering his arm to his grandmother, his other hand still holding on to Emma's, "homeward bound."

Shortly after arriving back at the house, Will wasted no time in getting his grandmother settled so that he could take his jellybean on that sunset walk along the beach. He carried her suitcase to the bedroom she always occupied and let the ladies chat for a little while. He knew that when they came back from their walk, he would finally get a little one on one time with Grace and he was looking forward to that.

"Gram," Will said reaching for Emma's hand, "we're going down to the beach for a bit. Will you be okay?"

"Will," Grace said rolling her eyes and settling on the couch, "I've got my gossip magazines and a nice big glass of iced tea. This is my idea of paradise so I'm sure I'll make out just fine while the warden's away."

"All right then," Will said sharing a look and a laugh with Emma, "we'll be back."

"Have fun," Grace said already lost in Hollywood's latest drama, "be careful."

"We will," he said grabbing a blanket on their way out the door.

"I'll leave the light on," Grace said, "just in case."

"Okay," Will said sharing a laugh with Emma.

"She's something else."

"I told you," he said as they walked across the patio, stopping just shy of the sandy beach. He slipped off his flip flops and looked at her, the setting sun illuminating her features beautifully. It took him a second to find the words but he found them, "are you okay walking on the sand without your shoes on?"

"Yeah," she said quietly and gently pulling her hand from his so she could slip off her sandals, "I've been to the beach before, just not this one and certainly not with someone who makes me want to forget that I have…problems."

"Just being a gentleman," he said with a wink and a smile.

"And I love you for that," she said standing on her tiptoes and kissing his nose, "so where are we going?"

"We're not too terribly far from the marina. I like to sit and watch the boats come in," he said taking her hand as they began to walk, "it's also far enough away from the touristy places and the lights. The stars seem to shine a little brighter there. Thankfully it's the middle of summer and really warm. Last time I sat out under the stars it was freezing."

"When you were here at Christmas," she asked.

"Yeah," he said looking out over the water.

He stopped, not wanting to miss the scene unfolding in front of them. Emma instantly noticed he stopped and looked out over the water herself. The sun was just beginning to set and Will reached for her, silently pulling her into his arms to stand in front of him. He loved standing barefoot with her. Their height difference allowed him to curl his body around her and protect her in the loving way only he could. They watched the sunset in silence. Words didn't need to be spoken, especially when they could feel each other's emotions. Emma was quick to press her lips to his cheek when he rested his chin on her shoulder.

"I love you," she whispered, "so much."  
"I love you too," he said quietly and pressed his lips to hers.

This wasn't exactly his idea of kissing her silly like had promised...this was better. They stood there kissing, the gentle tide washing over their feet. He smiled into the kiss when he felt Emma move her hand to the back of his head pulling him closer. He moved his hand to join hers as their kiss intensified.

"Wow," Emma said breathlessly once they came up for air, "that had to have knocked Jack and Rose's Titanic kiss down a few notches."

"Leo has got nothing on me," he teased burying his nose in her hair.

"Well, if I ever kiss Leo," she teased, "I'll be sure to publish a complete comparison analysis from softness of the lips to intensity. I'm sure he'd tank miserably compared to you, sunshine."

"You better never kiss Leo," he teased back.

"My lips are yours," she whispered turning her gaze back to the setting sun. It was truly beautiful here...a far cry from Virginia Beach but perhaps being with Will made the difference...she knew it made all the difference in the world.

"You are so beautiful," he whispered into her ear, "I wanted you here with me the last time I was here...so badly."

"I should have been," she whispered back.

"You're here now and that's what really matters to me," he said, "but the last time I was here I should have been back in Lima with you. You needed me..."

"We're together now," she said nuzzling his cheek with her nose. She didn't want to bring up the past, it couldn't be changed. It was time to focus on the here and now.

"No more icebergs," he said randomly, hoping she'd pick up on his innuendo.

"No," she said with a laugh. She might kick herself later for mentioning the movie because she had the sneaking suspicion that he would try to find a way to include Titanic jokes into their conversations. "You realize we're going to have to watch Titanic now, don't you?"

"Yeah," he said, "we can rent it while we're here. I have a Blockbuster membership. There's one in the same complex as the grocery store."

"Now why does that not surprise me," she teased and then turned in his arms, "can we go to your special spot now? I'd love to kiss you again like that."

"I need to do that in a special spot," he teased as he reached down to pick up the blanket he had dropped. He silently thanked the water gods for not letting the blanket get caught in the gentle surf…he loved that blanket.

"No but I would kind of prefer a little more privacy and I just feel like even though the beach is quieter now that it's getting dark," she said, "there are too many people around and I want to be alone with you. We haven't been alone since early this morning."

"You like being alone with me," he asked threading his fingers through hers again and pointing in the direction they needed to walk, "don't you?"

"I do," she said, "and for some reason that I find really hard to explain…I need to be sometimes…even if we're not doing anything…just to have you near me…I need that."

"You've got me Em," he said, "all of me…always."

"I know," she said leaning into his side as they walked hand in hand along the beach, "despite everything, sometimes I feel like at any moment I'm going to wake up from this incredible dream."

"Here's the thing, babe," he said dropping her hand and draping his arm around her shoulder, "you are going to wake up but I'm still going to be there. I'm never going anywhere without you…except maybe the guys locker room at school. That place is disgusting so there is no way in hell I'm letting you go in there."

"Too late. I've already been in there," she said bringing her hand up to his hand that rested on her shoulder and threading her fingers through his again, "and it was absolutely disgusting. I actually left for the day right after that. I took an hour and a half shower when I got home…I felt so dirty. Believe me, I've got no intentions of ever going back in there. If I need to talk to Shannon, I'll just call her."

"She's whipped the locker room into shape," Will mused, "I like her a lot. She helped get me through this year. It was nice to have a friend when I couldn't have you."

"Remind me to thank her for looking after you while I was…indisposed…for lack of a better word," she said.

"She's a good person Em," Will said, "I hope she finds happiness, she deserves it. She really does."

"So do you."

"I found it," he said, "I found it three years ago when I saw you standing there polishing your name plate."

"I was majorly crushing on you back then," Emma said hugging him a little closer, "I have to ask and I can't believe I've never asked before but…did you notice?"

Will laughed and kissed her on the head, "Oh yeah. I noticed and I wanted to do something about it…but I couldn't."

"You can now," she said.

"I kinda thought I already did," he teased back.

"I know," she said, "I guess I'm saying I don't want you to stop doing something about it….ever."

"Are you hitting on me Miss Pillsbury," Will said coming to a stop just beyond a couple of small dunes of sand, "we're here. This is my favorite spot on the beach."

"I wouldn't call that hitting on you as much as I would call it making sure you know what I want," she said plainly.

Will looked at her with wide eyes and a growing smile. Emma shrugged, bit her lip and looked around as he spread the blanket over the sand. Boats were already beginning to make their way back to the marina and stars were starting to pop out across the sky. "Wow," she whispered, in awe of the truly beautiful yet simple sight.

"Wait until the moon rises a little more," Will said settling down on the blanket and then reaching for her, "come here."

She smiled down at him and then moved to nestle herself between his legs, relaxing back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and together they just sat there in silence watching the boats make their way back to the marina.

"I spent an entire night out here at Christmas," he said breaking the silence, "I think I wished on every star in the sky that I could make things right between us and one day you'd be here with me…like this."

"It seems to me that your wish came true," Emma whispered.

"It took a while, but so it seems," he sighed into her neck. "Sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out that way."

"It's okay," she said with a small shrug, "it's the truth. It took a while but some things are worth fighting for and you never gave up the fight. I let up some slack on my end of things and let an outside source influence me. Will…you weren't the only one who hardly recognized me this year. I didn't recognize myself and the only time that I did was whenever I was with you."

"Do you recognize yourself now," he asked, "now that we're back together and living together?"

"Yes," she answered with a small smile and looking up at the stars, "I'm back to being Emma Pillsbury. And Emma Pillsbury is madly in love with Will Schuester. She has OCD but has finally taken a leap of faith, thanks in part to the man who has changed her life, and gotten some help. I'd say it's nice to have somewhat of a grip on things now."

"We'll work all that out in time," he reassured her, "we've got a pretty good routine now and we'll have to establish one when school starts back up."

"I don't want to think about school right now," she said turning her head to kiss his cheek, "but I do want to talk to you about something."

"Oh yeah," he asked raising his eyebrows.

"Remember when we talked about starting a notebook, writing down our dreams and what not," she asked.

"And the stuff we'd like to accomplish together," he continued.

"Exactly," she said. She continued when he nodded, "well your grandmother made a suggestion while you were talking to the warden this morning. She suggested that we keep a joint journal. One that we could take turns writing in. It's been on my mind all day and I bought one while we were at the bookstore. I'd like to try it, if that's okay with you?"

"Wow," he said resting his chin on her shoulder, "I always thought a girl's diary was a sacred thing. One she didn't dare share with anyone."

"It is," she said with a smile, "but this is different. I don't want to hide anything from you. There might be things that we can't actually vocalize but can write down to share with each other. And it doesn't have to be serious all of the time. You could write me a song or draw me picture, for example. We can write whatever we want to and respond however we want to. The only rule would be to always be honest with each other."

They sat in silence for a minute. Emma wanted to give Will a chance to think about it. It was a strange thing for a couple to do but she thought it was something that would be to their advantage as they journeyed through life together. It might work, it might not but she really didn't see the harm in at least trying and she hoped he felt the same way.

"Do you want to give it a try," she asked stroking his forearms with her fingertips.

"Yeah," he said, "let's do it."

"Really," she asked excitedly shifting in his arms a bit to face him.

"Yeah," he said with a smile, "let me ask this though. Do we have to write in it every day?"

"No," she said, "just when we feel we need to. Knowing the two of us, I think there will be times when we spend a lot of time passing it back and forth and I think there will be times where there might be a lull in writing. I guess we won't really know until we get going on it."

"So who goes first," he said tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"I hadn't thought that far," she said biting her lip, "I guess we can flip a coin for it."

"Why don't you start," he said, "something tells me you want to."

"Kind of," she said bashfully, "but not because I have some sort of secret to tell you. To be honest, it's my OCD. I got the idea in my head and I'm obsessing over it."

"Well then," he said, "go for it and you just tell me when it's my turn."

"Okay," she said kissing him softly, "it will be soon. I'm too tired to start tonight but maybe tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan," he said resting his forehead against hers, "you know, Gram's only going to stay at the house for a few days. She can't stay away from her friends too long. She hates being out of the gossip and poker loop. We'll have the house to ourselves for a bit and there's a ton of things we can do while we're here."

"I was going to ask how long she might stay with us. I'd love to get to know her better and I'm sure she feels the same about me," Emma said wrapping her arms around his neck, "but we are in Florida. It'd be a shame if we didn't do a couple touristy things…like the Magic Kingdom maybe?"

"Seriously," he asked, "you want to go to Disney World?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile, "you've called me Cinderella often enough, don't you want to see where I used to live before I shacked up with you?"

"Oh my god," he said kissing her again, "I'm loving this playful side of you."

"You bring out this side of me," she said, "most people have never seen me like this."

"Well I like it," he said with a nod.

Emma smiled, bit her lip, curled back up against him and they settled in to a comfortable silence, continuing to watch the stars pop up across the sky and the occasional boat sail into the marina. It wasn't until much later, after several whispers of "I love you" and an intense make out session that an ocean breeze finally brought goose bumps to Emma's arms and the decision was made to make the trek back to the house.

"Thank you," Emma whispered when they finally reached the patio and picked up their shoes.

"For what," he asked.

"Everything," she said with a knowing nod, "for tonight, for your love, for you…for everything."

"Oh Em," Will said dropping his shoes and the blankets and lifting her up in his arms, kissing her breathless once again. He twirled them around, never breaking their kiss. When they finally came up for air he said, "you don't have to thank me. I wanted this too…so much and for so long."

"Come on sunshine," Emma said once her feet were back on the ground and taking his hand, "let's go to bed…it's been a long day."

They turned back towards the house and saw that Grace had been standing at the door watching them with a smile on her face. Knowing she had been caught eavesdropping, Grace quickly scrambled back to her spot on the couch in a unsuccessful attempt to pretend she had been there the whole time.

"We saw you old lady," Will said as they walked through the door.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Grace said flipping the page of her magazine, not looking up at the happy but exhausted couple before her. When she finally looked up, she saw that despite the puffy, red, recently kissed lips that both Emma and Will were sporting, they were both exhausted. "You two look like you're about to fall asleep standing up."

"Just about," Emma said leaning into Will, "I think I'm going to head on up to bed. Will?"

"Right behind you," he said setting down their shoes and the blanket on a chair by the door. He walked past his grandmother, kissing her on the head, "Night Gram…don't stay up too late."

"Good night you two," Grace said watching them head towards the stairs, "wait a second…Will, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," he said looking up at Emma who had already begun the climb up the stairs, "babe, I'll be there in a bit."

"Okay," she smiled, knowing that Grace had been waiting all day to have a moment alone with her grandson, "don't be too long."

"I won't, I promise," he said kissing her gently.

"Good night Grace. Thank you for such a wonderful welcome," Emma said stroking Will's cheek after he kissed her.

"Good night Emma," Grace said with a wink, "I won't keep him long."

Will watched Emma climb the stairs with a smile on his face. He took a deep breath, simply admiring the beautiful woman he had fallen in love with and had finally been given a chance to experience that love with. When she was no longer in his sight, he exhaled and turned towards his grandmother.

"Well," he asked anxiously. His grandmother's opinion meant the world to him. He walked over to the couch and sat down next to her, propping his arm up on the back of the couch.

"She's the one," Grace said simply. She watched her grandson's face light up and the hint of happy tears form in his eyes.

"I know," he whispered.

"She's brought the real Will Schuester back to life," Grace said taking her grandson's face in her hands, "It's been so long since I've gotten a chance to spend time with him and I have Emma to thank for that. She brings out the best in you and I'm willing to bet you feel like you can conquer the world now or at least fix something around here that will actually stay fixed."

"Maybe," he laughed, "Gram, she makes everything better. Emma makes me want to be a better person. She encourages me and supports me and everything is 50/50. We balance each other out and I can't begin to tell you how that makes me feel."

"You don't have to tell me anything," Grace said, "I've got eyes. I can see the love that you two share and I haven't even been with you for a whole day yet. It's not fake or forced like it was when I saw you with Terri. Loving each other comes naturally for you and Emma. It was the same way for your Gramps and me."

"Does that mean you'll come to the wedding this time," he asked hopefully. He should have known all of those years ago that her refusal to attend his wedding to Terri was Grace's way of telling him that he was making a mistake. It was a huge blow to Will to not have his grandmother there on his special day but he knew now that while he couldn't go back and change the past…he should have acknowledged what the woman who never steered him wrong was trying to tell him.

"Front row, center," she said tapping his nose, "now don't get into any hurry to walk down the aisle. You're not ready for that yet."

"Oh I know and Emma is a bit of slow mover so you won't be getting a save the date card for a while," he said, "but you'll get one."

"I'm counting on it," Grace said, "now get out of here, I need my beauty sleep too. We'll talk more tomorrow. She's waiting for you."

"Sleep well pretty lady," Will said standing up and kissing his grandmother's cheek. He started to walk towards the stairs but turned to face her once again. "Gram?"

"What is it sunshine," she asked. Will was going to tell her about Emma's new pet name for him. It had taken on an entirely different meaning having Emma call him that and more than anything and even though he loved his grandmother dearly, hearing Emma say it made his heart sing. He never wanted that to stop. To hear Grace call him that before he could even ask the question was a little weird for him but he continued nonetheless.

"That's actually what I wanted to ask you. Emma called me sunshine this morning," he said with a grin, "Is it okay if she does? I really want her to."

"Of course my dear grandson," Grace said with a pang in her heart. Finally another woman had come along to take care of Will, one that she knew would probably do so much better at it than herself.  
"I insist."


	24. Chapter 24

"Hi sunshine," Emma exhaled as she walked into their bedroom and closed the door behind her. She leaned up against the door and smiled at her husband. He was propped up against the headboard, his glasses on the tip of his nose and his laptop resting on his knees.

"There you are," he said looking up at her and smiling, "it's about time. I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about me."

"Of course not," she said not moving from her place against the door, "if you thought that I forgot that I've got a sexy husband who found out this morning that he's going to be a daddy to a baby girl waiting for me in the 'best bed ever', you'd be a little off your rocker."

"What have you been doing then," he asked.

"Well, I spent a little more time talking to the girls after you came back up here," she said and then she produced their journal, "then I went into the baby's room to read and write in this."

"You did that in Avery's room," he questioned, "you could have done that in here with me."

"Mmm, I don't think so," she said with a wink, "you're too distracting and I really wanted to write my feelings down as I feel them, especially after everything that's happened today and reading what you wrote to me. I was a blubbering mess in her room. I'm actually surprised you didn't hear me and come running."

"Are you okay," he said with concern and setting his laptop on the nightstand.

"Yeah," she said, "I just got a little emotional. I'm pregnant…it's going to happen."

"Jellybean," Will said moving to a sitting position on his knees, "you're an emotional person anyway."

"Oh I know," she said slinking away from the door towards him, "this is different, Will. I mean it feels different. It's a control thing, I think. I can at least attempt to control myself when I get emotional but right now, with our baby tagging along with me, I can't. Does that make sense?"

"To most people," he said crawling on his knees towards the edge of the bed, "probably not but I get ya."

"You do have a wonderful way with words though," she said shaking the journal at him then tossing it up towards their pillows, "making you happy means so much to me and it's nice to know that I can and I am."

"Do I get to read your reply now," he asked grabbing her sides gently and pulling her towards him.

"Nope," she said resting her arms on his shoulders and kissing his temple, "I think a celebration is in order first."

"What are we celebrating," he teased and smiled brightly. He knew the answer and he knew that she knew that he already knew the answer…he just wanted to hear her say it.

"The fact that we have a healthy baby girl on the way," Emma said running her fingers through his hair, "one that I think has finally settled down enough so that I can give my full attention to her daddy."

"Oh good," he said moving his hands to feel around on her belly, "she's been a live wire today, hasn't she?"

"She has and if you keep pressing around on my belly like that," Emma teased, "you're going to wake her right back up."

"What I'm about to do to you is probably going to wake her back up," he teased back.

"Then maybe, you need to go slow and take your time," Emma said raising her eyebrows, "and be incredibly gentle with me. I know you can do it. You've done it before and those are the times that I smile about for days afterwards."

"Take my time, huh," he said taking her face in his hands and moving his lips to cover hers. He stopped just before he kissed her, "wait…can we take our time? Where's Doodlebug?"

"Downstairs in the basement with Santana," Emma said, "she didn't even try to follow me up here so we can most definitely take our time. She won't be scratching at our door to come in."

"Good," he whispered, finally capturing her lips with his. He stood there on his knees kissing his wife for quite some time, simply enjoying the art of kissing with her and with Emma, it was not just art…it was _fine_ art. Reluctantly, he pulled away and left her leaning towards him for more. Steadying her, he then kissed her nose and said, "let me just get things more comfy for us. And don't you dare think about taking anything off. That's my job."

"So I'm supposed to just stand here then," she said watching him move back towards their headboard and get to work on piling all of their pillows together and pulling back their down comforter.

"Yep," he said hopping off the bed to turn off flip on the night stand lights and turn off the overhead lights. He grabbed the television remote, turning it to their favorite music channel and turning the sound down.

"You're going to too much trouble," Emma said watching him move about the room. She furrowed her forehead when he opened the window, allowing the sound of the rain to filter into the room along with the fresh, clean air. "I just want you."

"Shhh," he said walking past her and putting his finger to her lips, "I was under the impression that I was in charge of our little celebration and I intend to make you see fireworks so you're just going to have to sit tight for a couple more minutes and let me set the mood."

"Sunshine," Emma asked putting one hand on her belly and the other on her back to support the steadily growing weight of her little monkey bump, "where did you learn how to romance a woman?"

"Believe it or not," he said standing behind her briefly and whispering in her ear, "from you. I've been attending the school of Emma for about five years now. I've taken excellent notes in class, studied hard with my partner…that's you…and passed all the tests, I hope."

"You have," she said with a smile.

"Another class began almost five months ago," he said, "And we're right about up to my midterm but this class is a bit different. It's called Emma's First Pregnancy. This one is a little tricky because I've never experienced anything like it before. I have to pay super close attention."

"So that's why your nose is constantly in What to Expect When You're Expecting," she said as he moved from behind her to the closet into which he disappeared for a minute. He came back out with a bottle of sparkling cider and a bowl of strawberries.

"Yep," he said flashing her a wide grin, "except it doesn't have an actual Emma chapter…which is why I'm having to pay closer attention."

"I see," she said watching him put the strawberries and cider on her night stand, "here's my next question. Just how long have you been planning this?"

"Um," he said finally taking off his glasses, "actually, this is one of those 'I waited to the last minute to do my assignment' kind of moments."

"You work well under pressure," Emma said, the excitement really starting to churn within her.

"I do," he said walking over to her and surprising her by scooping her up into his arms, "but I'm not nervous for this midterm. I'm actually pretty excited about it."

"I can tell," she whispered into his ear. She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled his cheek with her nose.

"Oh really," he said kneeling on their bed and gently placing her in the center of it.

"Mmhmm," she said smiling up at him, "but I'm afraid that there's entirely too much talking in class and not enough hands on learning."

"See…that's my point exactly," he said gently resting himself on top of her. He had to bite his tongue to keep from asking if she was okay but the look on her face was one that said she was just fine. "There's an excellent teacher at the school of Emma."

"Well," she said taking his head gently in her hands and bringing it down to hers, "then I say we ring the bell and get this class started."

"I'm skipping the bell," he said and then immediately closed the gap between their lips. He brushed his lips against hers gently and then began to sprinkle kisses all over her face, from her forehead to her chin.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear.

"I love you too," she whispered back moving her face to capture his lips with hers. She closed her eyes and smiled when he moved his lips down to her neck and began to tease her there just a bit, "hey mister…no love bites this time."

"Nowhere," he asked lifting his head and pouting a bit.

"Nope," she said pulling his head back down to her neck, "I didn't say stop, I just said no love bites. I can already tell our house is going to be a pretty busy place this summer and I really don't want to have to deal with all the snickers when they see that my husband gave me a hickey. So I repeat, no love bites."

"Damn," he said with a shrug before attaching his lips back to her neck and slowly moving down to her collar bone. With one hand tangled in her hair, the other got to work on popping open the buttons on his shirt that she had worn all day. Each button opened revealed a bit more skin and his lips were quick to press a kiss on each spot exposed. Will sat up when he had opened the last button and admired his beautiful wife as she smiled up at him. He reached up to take her lips with his one again and then kissed his way back down back to her belly where he cradled their little monkey bump in his hands. Emma watched him press his lips to her belly and smiled when he quietly whispered, "Avery…you better be fast asleep in there. Tonight isn't the night to interrupt your parents."

Emma bit her lip trying to hold back her laughter. Will could feel his wife holding back her laughter and looked up at her. "What?"

"I didn't say anything," Emma giggled, "but I am rather amused by your little pep talk there."

"I'm just making sure she's asleep. She usually kicks if I talk to her," he said reaching for Emma's hands and pulling her to sit up so he could slip the shirt from her shoulders. He feathered more kisses along her shoulder and once she had one arm free, she brought her hand to the back of his neck pulling him closer.

"I thinks she's asleep," Emma said reaching down to the hem of his shirt and giving it a tug, "honey, take it off."

"I'm busy," he said tossing the shirt on the floor next to the bed and reach behind her to unhook her bra, "you take it off."

"I'm trying but I think it's going to have to be a joint effort," she said with a wink as she felt her own garment slip from her shoulders. Together they pulled both Will's shirt and her bra off and tossed them onto the floor along with her shirt.

"Better," he asked.

"Much," she said lying back down on the pillows and reaching for him, "now come here."

"Yes ma'am," he whispered, gently settling himself back on top of her. Emma hungrily kissed him and did all that she could to pull him as close as possible. How he managed to rid them both of the rest of their clothes and pull the comforter up over them, she'll never know and she wasted absolutely no time in hitching a leg around his waist to keep him close. She was too lost in his touch and his kisses to notice the magic that he performed that led them to becoming one. In one of the most amazing acts of love in their entire relationship, time stopped and amidst whispers of love and longing, the Schuester's shared themselves in ways they had never experienced before. Pregnancy hormones or not, this round of love making would top the charts for them for a long time.

"Oh Will," Emma stuttered once they both started to come down from the peak of their love making, "that was…that was…"

"Wow," Will said as he collapsed breathlessly onto the bed next to his wife.

"I'll say," Emma said placing a hand on her chest as she tried to catch her breath.

"That was fun," he laughed as his wife snuggled in to his side. He wrapped his arm around her and began to lightly stroke her shoulder with his fingertips, "It's never been like that before."

"It was incredible," she said reaching over to entwine her fingers with his, "not that it isn't every time we make love but I think my hormones amplified it a bit."

"They're not affecting just you," Will said as their hands played together, "they're making you do things to me that damn near set me on fire."

"Well then, hooray for pregnancy hormones," she laughed. She sat up slightly remembering that they had a bowl of fresh strawberries in the room and untangled her fingers from his to turn and grab one from the bowl. She laid back down next to her husband and teased his lips with the red fruit that they had shared so many times and more often than not with a shared glass of champagne.

"Yeah, they're pretty great," he said grabbing her hand and steadying it so he could take a bite of the strawberry, "sorry…I'm hungry."

"Worked up an appetite," she asked, taking the fruit and rubbing it across his lips. Smiling, she leaned up to kiss him, enjoying not only the kiss but the strawberry taste that came with it. "Strawberry kisses…my favorite."

"I wish we could have some champagne," he said licking his lips, "I brought that cider up but let's be honest; neither of us really like it."

"I appreciate the gesture though," she said finishing off the berry and cuddling back in his arms, "I appreciate the fact that you've given up alcohol until after the baby's born even more."

"My pleasure. We made Avery together, we'll go through the pregnancy bans together…it's only fair," he said kissing her forehead and then reaching over for his laptop, "hey, I want to show you something."

"What's that," she said reaching behind her when she felt something press into her back that wasn't her husband. She pulled their journal out from underneath her and set it on his chest, "here but don't read it until after I'm asleep, okay? I've had a magical night; I don't want to cry again."

"Okay," he said moving the journal to the nightstand without a second thought. He turned on the laptop and pulled up a page for his wife to see, "I was just surfing and looking for monkey things we could get for Avery and saw these little knitted monkey caps. They're super cute and it would awesome if we had one for while we're at the hospital."

"Oh they are really cute," Emma said resting her head on his shoulder and looking at the screen, "do we know anyone who can knit one for us or do we need to order one?"

"We know someone," Will said bringing his hand up to her head and running his fingers through her hair.

"Who?"

"Gram," he said, "I bet if we brought her the yarn and pattern when we go to St. Pete, she'd have the thing done in no time."

"Would she do that for us," Emma said with a yawn.

"I'm sure she would but she'll argue that she's really doing it for Avery," he said, "if she says no, one of us is going to have to take up knitting."

"I've tried before," Emma said closing her eyes, "I don't have the patience and it really messes with my OCD."

"I suppose I could learn," he teased.

"Yeah right," she said with a giggle and a sleepy sigh.

"Gram will do it," Will said looking down at his wife, "You know what jellybean, why don't you get some sleep? I'm just going to read our journal then I'll turn out the light, is that okay?"

"Mmhmm," his wife mumbled into his shoulder, kissing his chest before mumbling, "I love you."

"I love you too, babe," he replied. Will reached for the leather bound book on his nightstand and replaced it with his laptop. He kept his fingers in her hair, gently massaging her scalp…something he knew would send her into a relax sleep state. Opening the book, he began to read the words that his jellybean had written in response to his own. His heart swelled with love for both her and their baby girl.

Will looked down at his sleeping wife as soon as he finished reading and he completely understood why it had been so emotional for her. Just as he had done for her, she poured her heart and soul into her journal entry. He silently thanked his Gram for suggesting this idea that first summer. Time and time again, it proved to be an incredible form of communication. Despite the fact that it sometimes got a little silly, it gave them the chance to uphold one of their most sacred vows to each other, to always be honest.

"Babe," Will whispered, kissing her forehead to wake her up.

"Hmm," she mumbled snuggled closer, "baby, you just did incredible things to me. Can you give me a little bit to rest before we have a go at round two?"

"Em," he laughed and tilted her chin up so she'd look at him, "It's not that although round two does sound incredibly tempting. I just wanted to tell you that you are the world to me too."


End file.
